riddled

verb

past tense of riddle
1
as in drilled
to make a hole or series of holes in several signs along the highway were riddled by buckshot

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in suffused
to spread throughout the newspaper exposé revealed a gaming commission that is riddled with corruption

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of riddled The neighborhood/area The Berkshires, Massachusetts is riddled with dozens of small towns, each with their own unique set of splendid restaurants, hotels, and attractions—and all within reasonable driving distance from one another. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Oct. 2026 This comes after fans noted the official release was riddled with bugs and performance glitches. — Jon Martindale, PC Magazine, 19 Oct. 2026 Those trends were backed up by the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book survey of business and economic conditions, which was riddled with red flags about higher fuel prices across the country. — Jason Ma, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026 Unsurprisingly, public support for watching an incarcerated man be riddled with bullets on the internet was extremely low. — Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 15 Oct. 2026 Che shows me a white Yankees bomber jacket, riddled with Sharpied signatures from SNL’s 50th anniversary event last year. — Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 14 Oct. 2026 Critics have accused the program of being riddled with fraud and abuse. — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026 If more work is completed but that work is riddled with errors, productivity isn’t improving. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 1 Oct. 2026 Kunkel was found guilty in 1995 for the brutal 1986 murder of Gilbert Fassett, whose body was riddled with more than 100 stab wounds. — ABC News, 21 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for riddled
  1. drilled
  2. suffused
  3. pierced
  4. penetrated
  5. punched
  6. permeated
  7. punctured
  8. flooded
Verb
  • Broncos kicker Wil Lutz drilled a 53-yard field goal in overtime to elevate Denver to a 17-14 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night.
    — Alejandro Avila OutKick, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Just two years ago, in 2024, Schmidt and the Trades Council were on opposite sides of a different ballot measure proposal — one over an oil industry effort to repeal a law banning oil and gas wells from being drilled too close to parks and schools.
    — Andrew Graham, Sacbee.com, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of drilled
Verb
  • Photograph by David Billet For years now, pop music has been suffused with a vague, or coded, malaise.
    — Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2026
  • This is a book suffused with beauty, but climate emergency is its undercurrent.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of suffused
Verb
  • Cook for 20 minutes, or until the squash falls apart when pierced with a fork.
    — Candy Hom, AJC.com, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The exhibition layout, conceived by French designer Pascal Rodriguez, unfolds across four successive spaces, separated by partition walls pierced by large circular openings at their centers.
    — Sarah Belmont for ArtNews, Robb Report, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of pierced
Verb
  • The Biden administration designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in 2024 following requests from Republicans who said the group’s members have penetrated the southern border.
    — Anna Giaritelli, The Washington Examiner, 15 Oct. 2026
  • My recent Hartford Courant oped, described how OpenAI agents broke out of their test sandbox and as a coordinated group (swarm) penetrated Hugging Face, a research platform used by AI developers.
    — John Caruso, Hartford Courant, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of penetrated
Verb
  • The 25-year-old who was punched refused medical attention at the scene.
    — Jesse Zanger, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The Rays punched their ticket to baseball’s biggest stage with a 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, taking the best-of-seven series four games to two.
    — Kyle Feldscher, CNN Money, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of punched
Verb
  • Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun, starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, was developed years before AI arrived in full force and the discussion about its potential permeated Hollywood.
    — Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The potential double jeopardy argument permeated pretrial court hearings, with prosecutors suggesting the defense was using delay tactics to invoke double jeopardy.
    — Kara Scannell, CNN Money, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of permeated
Verb
  • The hackneyed ruminations on feminine style are punctured by an image of violent female rage.
    — Leslie Camhi, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2026
  • As for the crack, well, that happened by accident when heavy equipment punched through a concrete wall and unintentionally punctured the sphere, company officials told The Mountaineer.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of punctured
Verb
  • The grand staircase was covered in 6 inches of ice and the basement was flooded with 4 feet of water.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
  • While outside spending in support of Paxton has flooded the Texas airwaves with ads, Talarico's campaign itself has outpaced Paxton's in fundraising from donors eager for Texas to forgo its solidly Republican title.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of flooded

Browse Nearby Words

riddle
riddled
riddled (out)
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Cite this Entry

“Riddled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/riddled. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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