Spuddle

Word of the Week

This week’s word comes from my friend, Jill A. She sent me a text with a meme that gave the word and it’s meaning. I immediately replied that I was going to use this word for this week’s post. I like this word as it aptly describes so many of the students I work with on a daily basis!

Spuddle : a useful verb from the 17th Century that means to work feebly or ineffectively, because your mind is elsewhere or you haven’t quite woken up yet. To be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing. ¹

I tried to find the definitions on different dictionary websites and they were all lacking information. After searching for a little bit, I found a website that gave some more context and more than one definition.

Here are a couple of examples of how I would use this word in a sentence:

1. There are a few students who spuddle their way through a class; often I find that they are playing video games.

2. It didn’t take long for the teacher to realize I was spuddling about when she asked me to answer a question and I was not able to answer the question correctly.

How would you use this word? Did you know this word existed? Please leave a comment below with your creative sentences!

1. https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/chaplains-latest-reflection/2021/12/09/how-not-to-spuddle/