different between meddle vs intrude

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 Latin intrudere, from in- + trudere (“to thrust”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?u?d/
• Rhymes: -u?d

Verb

intrude (third-person singular simple present intrudes, present participle intruding, simple past and past participle intruded)

1. (intransitive) To thrust oneself in; to come or enter without invitation, permission, or welcome; to encroach; to trespass.

   to intrude on families at unseasonable hours; to intrude on the lands of another

   • I. Watts

     Some thoughts rise and intrude upon us, while we shun them; others fly from us, when we would hold them.

2. (transitive) To force in.

Derived terms

• intruder
• intrusion

Related terms

Translations

See also

• invade

Anagrams

• turdine, untired, untride, untried

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ude

Verb

intrude

1. third-person singular present indicative of intrudere