meddlesome
Americanadjective
adjective
Related Words
See curious.
Other Word Forms
- meddlesomely adverb
- meddlesomeness noun
- unmeddlesome adjective
Etymology
Origin of meddlesome
Explanation
A meddlesome person gets in your business in a way that's totally annoying. In other words, they meddle. Respect people's privacy by not being meddlesome. In Yiddish, the word "yenta" is used for people who interfere in other people's business. A defining quality of the "yenta" is that they're meddlesome. You could say that someone who's meddlesome gets "in the middle" of your business, if that's the way you like to remember words. Just remember that the spelling is different from "middle." I don't mean to be meddlesome, but you'd be well advised not to confuse the words "meddle" and "middle," even if one helps you remember the other.
Vocabulary lists containing meddlesome
The Secret Garden
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The Blood of Olympus
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Blood Water Paint
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And as the tribunes who stir up the populace’s antipathy toward Coriolanus, William DeMeritt and Zuzanna Szadkowski are bland, seemingly unwilling to decide whether their characters are nefarious or just mildly meddlesome.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026
Bonnie Black delivers compelling performances as both the marquise’s mother, a woman of mean understanding, and the meddlesome Madam Graffigny, a not entirely welcome guest at the marquise’s family estate.
From New York Times • Apr. 18, 2023
Curses, shape-shifters and meddlesome gods abound in “Drinking From Graveyard Wells” by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, a searing collection of stories about Black women in tough situations.
From Washington Post • Mar. 7, 2023
He could be meddlesome, a freelance diplomat who irked more than one administration.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 24, 2023
“They were meddlesome fools, too. He turned to go. “
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
