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Adʹdle

is the Old English adela (filth), hence rotten, putrid, worthless.

Addled egg, better “addle-egg,” a worthless egg. An egg which has not the vital principle.

Addle - headed, addle - pate, empty-headed. As an addle-egg produces no living bird, so an addle-pate lacks brains.

Addle Parliament (The)—5th April to 7th June, 1614. So called because it did not pass one single measure. (See Parliament.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.