noodle

Plural: noodles

Noun

a ribbonlike strip of pasta
informal terms for a human head
A string or flat strip of pasta or other dough, usually cooked (at least initially) by boiling, and served in soup or in a dry form mixed with a sauce and other ingredients.
An object which is long and thin like a noodle.
An object which is long and thin like a noodle.
Ellipsis of pool noodle (“a long, slender tube or rod, extruded from buoyant foam and usually brightly coloured, used as an exercise tool or toy in swimming pools”).
A dumpling cooked by boiling and served in soup; a knaidel or knödel.
The penis.
A person with poor judgment; a fool.
The brain; the head.
An improvised passage of music played on an instrument; also, a series of ornamental notes played on an instrument; a trill.

Verb

Verb Forms: noodled, noodling, noodles

To improvise or play idly on a musical instrument.
To fool or trick (someone).
To engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time.
To hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume.
To play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play (a series of ornamental notes) on an instrument.
To ponder or think about (something).
To play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument.
To ponder or think, especially in an unproductive or unsystematic manner; to muse.
To attempt in an informal or uncertain manner; to fiddle.
Often followed by about or around: to mess around, to play.
To search (mullock (“mining or ore processing waste”)) for opals.
To obtain (an opal) by searching through mullock.
To clear extraneous material from (an opal).
To search mullock for opals; to fossick.
To catch (fish (usually very large catfish), turtles, or other aquatic animals) with the hands; also, to catch (fish) using a gaff or fishing spear; to gaff.

Examples

Fred had several lacerations on his hands from noodling flathead in the river.
He has been noodling with that trumpet all afternoon, and every bit of it sounds awful.
He liked to noodle with the Scrabble tiles, rearranging them constantly, before committing to a word.
He noodled over the problem for a day or two before making a decision.
If the machine is really broken, noodling with the knobs is not going to fix it.
She is cooking noodles for dinner.
She slurped a long noodle up out of her soup.
“Noodle that thought around for a while,” said Dr. Johnson to his Biblical Interpretations class.

Origin / Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch noedel (“noodle”)), or from its etymon German Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”); further etymology uncertain, probably a variant of Knödel (“dumpling”), from Middle High German knödel (“dumpling; small knot”), and then either:
* from knode, knote (“knot”) (from Old High German knodo, knoto (“knot”), perhaps ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *knappō (“knob; boy”)) + -el (diminutive suffix); or
* from Ladin menùdli (“small dough dumpling in soup”), probably from Latin minutulus (“very small, tiny”) (in the sense of food chopped into small pieces), a diminutive of minūtus (“diminished; having been diminished”), the perfect passive participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish, lessen, reduce”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”).
Cognates
* French nouille, noudle, nudeln
* Swedish nudel

Synonyms

attic, bean, bonce, dome, noggin, catfist, dupe, guddle, mull over, noodle

Scrabble Score: 7

noodle: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
noodle: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
noodle: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

noodle: valid Words With Friends Word