A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Puddil(l, -le, n. Also: -el(l, pudle, pwdyll. [ME podel (c 1330), e.m.E. puddel (Caxton), puddle, appar. dimin. of OE pudd ditch, furrow: cf. Germ. dial. pudel, pfudel, a puddle, and Pud(d)ill v.]
a. A mud-fouled pool of water, a puddle. b. Muddy or foul water, slime. Freq. in fig. contexts.c1520-c1535 Nisbet III 347/25.
That thou sulde returnne (as anne swynne) vnto thinne auld pwdyll [T. podell] agaynne 1554 Knox III 260.
Leave off to seke swete water in filthy puddels 1590-1 R. Bruce Serm. 265.
This original corruption, this foul puddle, this rotten root 1616 Crim. Trials III 587.
Remove this stinking pompe, pudle and triffles of the Scottis Court 1659 Edinb. B. Rec. IX 148.
The smell of the puddell quhilk wes let out of the letterns of the colledge 1684 Strathendrick 12.
Ther officer … to throw any webs or other clothes that he should find thus in the kirkyaird over the kirkyaird dick in the pudle
c. fig. A confused or muddled collection, a muddle, mess (of things or persons viewed with disapproval).(1) c1520-c1535 Nisbet I 38 marg.
Swyne are thai quhilkis wassis thair seluis in the puddill and fylthiness [of] lustes 1584 Melvill 175.
Pudle 1596 Dalr. I 204/32.
Sancte Ninian … had teimed the hartes of mony, of the foul puddil of errour and vice Ib. II 403/4.
Pudle 1602 Colville Paraenese 159.
A puddill of vanitie(2) 1596 Dalr. I 255/6.
To purge the realme frome the foul pudle of al wicked and malitious persounis 1616 Crim. Trials III 586.
So … pernicious a multitude and pudle of raskallis
