Puddle Meaning
/ˈpʌdl̩/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA small, often temporary, pool of water, usually on a path or road.
nounStagnant or polluted water.
Sentence Examples
He jumped across the puddle.
A passing car hit a puddle and splashed water all over me.
The ice melted into a puddle of water.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the heavy rain, a large ____ of water formed on the sidewalk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The child jumped into every ____ on the way home from school, soaking her boots completely.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"And fast beside a little brooke did pas / Of muddie water, that like puddle stank […]."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"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:
"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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the heavy rain, a large ____ of water formed on the sidewalk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The child jumped into every ____ on the way home from school, soaking her boots completely.