Definition: - drunkard
Fuddler comes, reasonably enough, from fuddle, a word which has been confusing speakers of English for well over 400 years now. Fuddle has meant, at one time or another, “to take part in a drinking bout,” “to make drunk,” “to make confused,” and, most importantly, “to make a fish torpid.”
Please don’t ask us to explain the whole ‘making a fish torpid’ thing.
A Fidler & Fudler, are always together,
like Fidle & Case there was both, or else neither,
united Companions the like never known,
& may be compared to two parts in one,
the Fidler did Fuddle, & the Fuddler did Fiddle,
a Unison sure doth unriddle the Riddle.
— Henry Purcell, The Catch Club, 1690