peddle

English

Etymology

Back-formation from pedlar. (Compare burgle from burglar.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛdəl/
• Homophones: pedal, petal (some dialects)
• Rhymes: -ɛdəl

Verb

peddle (third-person singular simple present peddles, present participle peddling, simple past and past participle peddled)

1. To sell things, especially door to door or in insignificant quantities.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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. To sell illegal narcotics.
   • 1974, 42:19 from the start, in Gone in 60 Seconds:

     - 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.

3. (derogatory, figuratively) To spread or cause to spread.
   • 2009, Michael John Beashel, Unshackled, page 166:

     Christine walked a dangerous line, peddling gossip about her detested son-in-law.

   • 2012, Niamh O'Connor, Taken, page 166:

     Roberts was a drug dealer, nicknamed 'King Krud', who peddled death and misery.

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎^[1]:

     Yes, there were instances of grandstanding and obsessive behaviour, but many were concealed at the time to help protect an aggressively peddled narrative of [Oscar] Pistorius the paragon, the emblem, the trailblazer.

   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     As for the IRP, Secretary of State Grant Shapps continues to peddle snake oil, smoke and mirrors. His reaction to near-universal IRP condemnation from politicians, local and national media, and all but a few rail specialists was to dismiss the lot of us (in the condescending and patronising tone we have now come to expect) as "critics and naysayers".

Derived terms

• peddle one's ass

Related terms

• peddler, pedlar
• peddling

Translations

to sell things, especially door to door

• Bulgarian: продавам амбулантно (prodavam ambulantno)
• Dutch: leuren (nl), aan de deur verkopen
• Esperanto: kolporti
• Finnish: kaupustella (fi), kaupitella (fi)
• French: colporter (fr)
• Hungarian: házal (hu)
• Portuguese: mascatear
• Russian: коммивояжёрствовать impf (kommivojažórstvovatʹ) (colloquial)
• Yiddish: פּעדלען (pedlen)

to sell illegal narcotics

• Dutch: dealen (nl)
• Finnish: diilata (fi) (slang), välittää (fi) (common language)
• Portuguese: traficar (pt)
• Spanish: traficar (es)

to spread or cause to spread

• Dutch: rondbazuinenen, ingang doen vinden
• Finnish: levittää (fi)
• French: colporter (fr)
• German: verbreiten (de)
• Polish: rozpowszechniać (pl)
• Russian: распространять (ru) impf (rasprostranjatʹ)

References

• “peddle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.