Addling Meaning and Examples

"Addling" means making something unclear, confused, or muddled. When used specifically on eggs, addling means making eggs rotten or spoiled.

For instance, excessive heat can addle a student's ability to focus on studying. That means the high temperatures are making it difficult for the student to concentrate on studying; the heat is causing her mental state to be in a confused or suboptimal condition for studying.

Another example would be if different supervisors gave conflicting instructions which would leave the team feeling addled and unsure of what to do. The team would be confused and not know whose directions to follow.

"Addling" is not to be confused with the similarly spelled "adding," which means to join something to something else. Although not commonly used, "addling" is a completely different word from "adding."

Example sentences

The excessive heat was addling my ability to focus on my tasks.
The confusing directions left me feeling mentally addled.
The constant noise in the city was addling his attempts at meditation.
The rapid changes in technology can sometimes leave people feeling mentally addled.
Lack of sleep can result in an addling effect on cognitive function.
The sudden change of weather left me feeling quite addled.
The overwhelming amount of information was addling my ability to make decisions.
The wildlife management team uses a controlled process to prevent overpopulation by addling goose eggs.
In order to manage the local bird population, they started addling eggs to control hatching rates.
The conservationists practiced ethical wildlife management by addling eggs rather than destroying nests.

Want to sound like a native speaker?

Engram’s AI-powered grammar checker makes your English sound like a native speaker’s, suggesting natural English expressions on top of fixing grammar, spelling, punctuation, word order, and vocabulary.