different between meddle vs medley

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 English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from Late Latin misculata, feminine past participle of Vulgar Latin *miscul? (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?dli/

Noun

medley (plural medleys)

1. (now rare, archaic) Combat, fighting; a battle. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1632, Xenophon, Philemon Holland (translator), Cyrupaedia

     For greater shields they have, than that they can either doe or see ought, and being raunged by hundreds no doubt they will hinder one another in the medley, except some very few

2. A collection or mixture of miscellaneous things. [from 17^thc.]

   a fruit medley

   • this medley of philosophy and war

   • 1692, William Walsh, Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant

     Love is a medley of endearments, jars, / Suspicions, reconcilements, wars.

3. (music) A collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece. [from 17^thc.]

   They played a medley of favorite folk songs as an encore.

4. (swimming) A competitive swimming event that combines the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. [from 20th c.]
5. A cloth of mixed colours.
   • 1631, Thomas Fuller, Comment on Ruth , Chapter 1, verses 9, 10, 11

     Otherwise , as our Saviour noteth , when the old Cloth was joyned to the new , it made no good medley , but the Rent was made the wors

Synonyms

• mashup

Related terms

• meddle
• melee

Translations

Verb

medley (third-person singular simple present medleys, present participle medleying, simple past and past participle medleyed)

1. (music) To combine, to form a medley.

Anagrams

• yelmed

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English medley.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?dli/, [?m?d?li]

Noun

medley n (singular definite medleyet, plural indefinite medleyer)

1. medley (of songs; swimming event)

Inflection

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English medley.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: med?ley

Noun

medley m (plural medleys, diminutive medleytje n)

1. several songs strung together.

Synonyms

• potpourri

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English medley. Doublet of mezclada.

Noun

medley m (plural medleys)

1. medley (songs)

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English medley.

Noun

medley n

1. medley (songs)