What's the difference between meddle and meddlesome?

Meddle


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To mix; to mingle.
  • (v. i.) To interest or engage one's self; to have to do; -- / a good sense.
  • (v. i.) To interest or engage one's self unnecessarily or impertinently, to interfere or busy one's self improperly with another's affairs; specifically, to handle or distrub another's property without permission; -- often followed by with or in.
  • (v. t.) To mix; to mingle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Conservative commentators responded with fury to what they believed was inappropriate meddling at a crucial moment in the town hall debate.
  • (2) Real Labour would not just meddle with a cosmetic charge on rich London mansions .
  • (3) May delivered an unexpected broadside against the EU on Wednesday afternoon, claiming the European commission and unnamed officials had been trying through various means to meddle in the UK election campaign.
  • (4) China says its territorial claims have a historical basis and objects to what it considers US meddling.
  • (5) Obama warned Moscow before the election to stop meddling, but reports have since emerged that he decided against retaliating after the CIA warned him Putin was behind it.
  • (6) These stories play on half-truths, like the presence of far-right nationalists at Maidan, and reasonable doubt, like skepticism of western meddling.
  • (7) The Guardian view on human rights in China: Liu Xiaobo is dying, free him | Editorial Read more Having been diagnosed with terminal cancer in May, the Nobel peace laureate is at the centre of a geopolitical tug-of-war with western governments urging China to show “humanity” by letting him travel overseas for treatment and Beijing accusing the world of meddling in its “domestic affairs”.
  • (8) | Luke Harding Read more 18 December Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation , Conway says no one involved with the campaign had any contact with Russians who sought to meddle in the US election.
  • (9) Brennan's testimony theoretically represents a rare chance to learn more about drone killing, warrantless wiretapping, torture, rendition, foreign meddling and other odd cloak-and-daggery.
  • (10) SEVERAL PRACTICAL POINTS IN PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT ARE DISCUSSED: not to tie staff to the institution, not to meddle with their outside affairs or to become too socially intimate, to be sensitive to unexpressed reactions of the staff, to avoid secrets.
  • (11) If Phil Jackson’s presence means that meddling, incompetent owner James Dolan will be much less involved in the decision making process, that alone would be a step in the right direction no matter how Jackson fairs in his new role.
  • (12) The fortress-like villages perched on rocky mountaintops we saw when we visited the north of the country are reminders that Yemen has constantly been invaded, or otherwise meddled with, by outsiders, from the Turks onwards.
  • (13) The city hall staged a massive protest gathering at the time , led by Ian Paisley and James Molyneaux, which was designed to highlight unionist disgust at the British and Irish governments' meddling in Northern Irish affairs.
  • (14) Stokes sent a downward header towards the far corner from seven yards but the pesky keeper again meddled, diving full length to push it to safety.
  • (15) Rejecting his overnight demand that the promised political transition and reforms begin without delay, the Egyptian foreign ministry said bluntly that meddling by "foreign parties" was unacceptable and was "aimed to incite the internal situation".
  • (16) Swire emphasised that the foreign affairs committee was independent from the government, and that the proposed visit did not therefore amount to the UK government meddling in China’s internal affairs.
  • (17) Notwithstanding the abundance of evidence that Russia hacked our political institutions during the presidential campaign and dumped documents in an effort to meddle in our political affairs, President-elect Trump’s comments this morning continue to contradict our intelligence professionals and carry water for the Kremlin,” Schiff said on Wednesday.
  • (18) Welby's intervention suggests he will not be discouraged from speaking out despite criticism of his predecessor, Rowan Williams, who was accused of meddling in politics .
  • (19) From meddling schools and churches to helpful librarians and permissive parents, the stories of our readers reflect a broad spectrum of experiences.
  • (20) Hofer himself described Farage’s comments as a “crass misjudgment”, adding that “it doesn’t fill me with joy when someone meddles from outside”.

Meddlesome


Definition:

  • (a.) Given to meddling; apt to interpose in the affairs of others; officiously intrusive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Then I was seen as someone who, when she was in power, didn’t want anything to do with them.” She was portrayed as meddlesome and pushy, with an undue influence on both Hollande’s policies and his wardrobe.
  • (2) What worries me is that all this meddlesome injunctioneering could soon threaten the fabric of reason itself, causing a black hole of logic that sucks everything in the universe through to neverwhere.
  • (3) In a memorable exchange, Senator Angus King of Maine asked: “When a president of the United States in the Oval Office says something like ‘I hope’ or ‘I suggest’ or ‘would you,’ do you take that as a directive?” Comey replied: “Yes, it rings in my ear as kind of, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?’” – a reference to King Henry’s II’s kiss of death to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket.
  • (4) Professionals, unionised workers and meddlesome politicians need to stand aside and allow the system to become rational, transaction-oriented and incentivised.
  • (5) Their fathers tended to be away from home, and mothers were conspicuously overprotective and meddlesome.
  • (6) Even when David Cameron swore he would not introduce "any more meddlesome top-down restructuring" he pushed through another.
  • (7) He dumped Every Child Matters: it was, he noted in February 2012, "meddlesome".
  • (8) No one could be accused of "meddlesome" intervention in the life of Daniel Pelka.
  • (9) The size of the hammer taken to Defra revealed more about the government’s approach than simply its antipathy to the meddlesome pursuit of environmental protection.
  • (10) 1 example of "meddlesome medicine" is the widespread use of "therapeutic abortion."
  • (11) While this sort of front office juggling and decision-making waffling isn't entirely uncommon and not really too newsworthy, Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix reported details that made Pera's recent behavior as being less meddlesome and more just flat out eccentric : • Pera wanted more influence in deciding the playing time for certain players, particularly fourth-year power forward Ed Davis.
  • (12) Simon Callow stars as Godfrey, the mischievously meddlesome narrator, while Enfield plays a sinister creep who seduces grieving widows, via tip-offs from a corrupt undertaker, in order to steal their life's savings.
  • (13) Minor surgery is usually meddlesome and often followed by local recurrence which is hard to control.
  • (14) At 64 years of age, the lazy and meddlesome Cloquet stopped operating and writing.
  • (15) Laparotomy is unnecessary and potentially meddlesome.
  • (16) It's a useful reminder, if one were needed, that there's no technique too mendacious, too meddlesome or too unpleasant for people who think other woman's reproductive organs are de facto their business.