addled

adjective

|Updated on: 24 Jun 2018

Definition of addled

1 : thrown into confusion : confused

his addled brain/mind

… vainly endeavouring to master some task … which, to the addled brain of the crushed boy of nineteen, was a sealed and hopeless mystery.
—Charles Dickens

2 of an egg : rotten, addle

She was romantic, she was sentimental, she had a passion for little secrets and mysteries—a very innocent passion, for her secrets had hitherto always been as unpractical as addled eggs.
—Henry James

Recent Examples of addled from the Web

The Boston Globe reports that, according to multiple sources, the White House staffers who help control President Trump’s Twitter feed are quite devoted to accurately imitating their addled boss.

— benjamin hart, Daily Intelligencer, "Report: Trump’s Tweets Include Intentional Grammatical Errors," 22 May 2018
Noelle’s grief-addled mother, Lisa (Cassie Beck), shows up at Julie’s apartment, after Dan agrees to hold on to some boxes belonging to the dead girl.

— ben brantley, New York Times, "Review: ‘This Flat Earth’ Traces Childhood Fears No Parent Can Allay," 9 Apr. 2018
Other than Cox, who is genuinely scary as the addled and monstrous Logan, the most famous face on the show is probably Kieran Culkin as Roman, the screw-up playboy of the four Roy children.

— richard lawson, HWD, "HBO’s Rich-Family-in-Peril Drama Succession Has a Troubling Allure," 1 June 2018
Down Under gets its very own chapter on its liquor-addled origins as a penal colony, when rum was currency and even inspired a military coup, the Rum Rebellion.

— New York Times, "Sloshed, Hammered, Blotto — We’ve Been Doing It for Ages," 30 May 2018
Toller, who is not a well man, has a turbulent past (Victoria Hill plays a onetime lover, a choir director at Abundant Life) bleeding into an increasingly addled and fraught present.

— michael phillips, chicagotribune.com, "'First Reformed' review: Ethan Hawke’s bracing dark night of the soul," 24 May 2018
That should wipe most royally love-addled suckers out.

— josie colt, WIRED, "How to Not Watch the Royal Wedding," 18 May 2018
And the chicken has just enough of the herb’s resinous flavor to remind you of walking past a planter of flowering rosemary in some fog-addled corner of the city and running your fingers through the spiky green tresses.

— jonathan kauffman, San Francisco Chronicle, "Fernay McPherson and the movement that found success away from her native Fillmore," 11 May 2018
But Aerosmith's addled days seemed to be only a distant memory Saturday.

— doug maccash, NOLA.com, "Aerosmith sings for the years, laughter and tears at Jazz Fest 2018," 5 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'addled.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.