puddle

Etymology

From Middle English podel, diminutive of Old English pudd (“ditch”), from Proto-Germanic *puddaz (compare Low German Pudel (“puddle”), Middle High German podel (“quagmire, mudhole”), Hunsrik Puttel, dialectal German Pfudel (“puddle”), German pudeln (“to splash about”)), ultimately imitative.

noun

1. A small, often temporary, pool of water, usually on a path or road.
   Foꝛ with the only be theſe welles of lyfe, / Of frayle men ſpring but podels of myꝛe, / From whom ſourdeth errour ⁊ croked ſtrife[…] 1560, “Pſalme. xxxvi”, in Matthew Parker, The whole Pſalter tranſlated into Engliſh metre[…], Iohn Daye, page 98
2. (now dialectal) Stagnant or polluted water.
   searching their habitations for water, we could fill but three barricoes, and that such puddle, that never till then we ever knew the want of good water. 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 90
3. A homogeneous mixture of clay, water, and sometimes grit, used to line a canal or pond to make it watertight.
4. (rowing) The ripple left by the withdrawal of an oar from the water.
   I had only to see the 'puddle' to know that your paddle made it. 1969, Charles Cuthbert Brown, Malay Sayings, page 88
   As the blade exits the water the puddle is very tight and dark. It is also very quiet. 2007, Rowing News, volume 14, number 5, page 36

verb

1. To form a puddle.
2. To play or splash in a puddle.
3. (entomology) Of butterflies, to congregate on a puddle or moist substance to pick up nutrients.
4. To process iron, gold, etc., by means of puddling.
5. To line a canal with puddle (clay).
6. To collect ideas, especially abstract concepts, into rough subtopics or categories, as in study, research or conversation.
7. To make (clay, loam, etc.) dense or close, by working it when wet, so as to render impervious to water.
8. To make foul or muddy; to pollute with dirt; to mix dirt with (water).