Peddle
name, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To sell things, especially door to door or in insignificant quantities.
"My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price."
- 2 sell or offer for sale from place to place wordnet
- 3 To sell illegal narcotics.
"- How much you think this stuff is worth? - Yeah, there must be a million bucks' worth. - Think we could peddle it? - Oh, you can always get rid of it."
- 4 To spread or cause to spread. derogatory, figuratively
"Christine walked a dangerous line, peddling gossip about her detested son-in-law."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Newspapers peddle disaster scenarios."
Etymology
Back-formation from pedlar. (Compare burgle from burglar.)
Related phrases
More for "peddle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.