different between meddle vs interpose

English

Etymology

From Middle English medlen, from Anglo-Norman medler, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, meller, from Vulgar Latin *miscul?, from Latin misce? (“to mix”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?d.?l/, /?m?dl?/
• Rhymes: -?d?l
• Homophones: medal, metal, mettle (in accents with flapping)

Verb

meddle (third-person singular simple present meddles, present participle meddling, simple past and past participle meddled)

2. To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly. [from 14^thc.]

   • Why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt?

   • 1689, John Locke, Two Treatises on Civil Government

     The civil lawyers […] have meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.
3. (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
   • 1560, Geneva Bible, Thessalonians 4:11

     Study to be quiet, and to meddle with your own business.

   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Usefulness of Mathematical Learning Explained and Demonstrated

     The Pythagoreans who, as Aristotle says, were the first among the Greeks, that meddled with Mathematics

4. (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend. [14^th-17^thc.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

     he cut a locke of all their heare, / Which medling with their bloud and earth, he threw / Into the graue […].

5. (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex. [from 14^thc.]

Synonyms

• (to interfere in or with): dabble, stick one's nose into, stick one's oar in
• (to mix): bemingle, combine, ming; see also Thesaurus:mix
• (to have sex): do it, get it on, ming; see also Thesaurus:copulate

Derived terms

• meddle and make
• meddlement
• meddlesome
• meddler

Translations

Anagrams

• melded

English

Etymology

From Middle French interposer, influenced by poser (“to place, put”), from Latin interp?n?, from inter (“between”) + p?n? (“to place, put”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??n.t??p??z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n.t??po?z/
• Rhymes: -??z
• Hyphenation: in?ter?pose

Verb

interpose (third-person singular simple present interposes, present participle interposing, simple past and past participle interposed)

1. (transitive) To insert something (or oneself) between other things.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar^[1], Act II, scene i,

     What watchful cares do interpose themselves

     Betwixt your eyes and night?

   • 1785, William Cowper, The Task^[2], book II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Thomas Dobson, 1787, page 30:

     Lands intersected by a narrow frith

     Abhor each other. Mountains interposed

     Make enemies of nations who had else

     Like kindred drops been mingled into one.

2. (transitive) To interrupt a conversation by introducing a different subject or making a comment.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost^[3], book XII, lines 1-5:

     As one who in his journey bates at Noone,

     Though bent on speed, so her the Archangel paused

     Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,

     If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;

     Then with transition sweet new Speech resumes.

3. (transitive) To offer (one's help or services).
4. (intransitive) To be inserted between parts or things; to come between.
   • 1782, William Cowper, “Truth”, in Poems, London: J. Johnson:

     Suppose, unlook’d for in a scene so rude,

     Long hid by interposing hill or wood,

     Some mansion neat and elegantly dress’d,

     By some kind hospitable heart possess’d

     Offer him warmth, security and rest;

5. (intransitive) To intervene in a dispute, or in a conversation.

Synonyms

• (To insert something (or oneself) between other things): insert
• (To interrupt a conversation by introducing a different subject or making a comment): interrupt

Translations

Anagrams

• entropies, isentrope, tropeines

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: interposent, interposes

Verb

interpose

1. first-person singular present indicative of interposer
2. third-person singular present indicative of interposer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of interposer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of interposer
5. second-person singular imperative of interposer

Italian

Verb

interpose

1. third-person singular past historic of interporre

Anagrams

• inesperto
• peroniste
• riponeste