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canoodle

verb
/kəˈnuːdl̩/UK/kəˈnud(ə)l/US

Etymology

The origin of the verb is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From a blend of ca(ress) + noodle (“to engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time; to mess around, to play”). * From German knuddeln (“to cuddle; (originally) to embrace tightly”); or related to Low German knuddle (“a clump, a knot”), a diminutive of knude, related to Old High German knodo, knoto (“a knot”) (modern German Knoten (“knot”)); ultimate etymology unknown. Compare also Norwegian Bokmål knulle (“to fuck”), Swedish knulla (“to fuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *knuzlijaną (“to beat; to mash”) (and also compare the semantics of the Scandinavian cognates of fuck). The noun is probably derived from the verb.

  1. derived from knodo
  2. derived from knuddle — “a clump, a knot”
  3. derived from knuddeln — “to cuddle; (originally) to embrace tightly”

Definitions

  1. To caress, fondle, or pet (someone)

    To caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.

    • He’s got a big smile on his face—who’s he been canoodling recently?

  2. To cajole or persuade (someone).

    • “There,” she cried triumphantly, when her labours were finished, “it [the drawing-room] looks different now, really quite effective and ‘canoodling’.”
    • He canoodled my husband into believin' that the end of the world was comin' and it was his duty to give all his property away.

  3. Of a person

    Of a person: to caress, fondle, or pet another person; of two people: to caress, fondle, or pet each other; also, to have sexual intercourse; to make love.

    • Young Robin and my daughter. / ‘Canoodling’ too. This must lead to manslaughter.
    • Gerald Arbuthnot sat with her in the library all the time Jim was upstairs dying and they canoodled together on the sofa in front of the fire.
    • My mouth opened, ostensibly to tell him to stop this right now, I refused to kanoodle with anyone who wasn't my true love. I'd never know what I would have actually said, because he crushed his lips on mine, and my brain short-circuited.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. A caress, a cuddle, a hug.

      • She got on with the crewmen, all of whom liked her and at least one of whom, Pinky Montmorency, took more than a casual interest in her. Probably a bit of a canoodle now and then in the room behind the office.

    2. A donkey.

    3. A foolish lover

      A foolish lover; also (generally) a fool.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for canoodle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA