Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💧 A small pool 🧱 Waterproof clay mix 🧱 To mix wet mud 💧 To form a pool 👧 To play in water 🌱 To dip roots ⚒️ To refine metal
to puddle

to puddle

9.9
To heat and stir iron to remove unwanted parts
  • verb
  • /ˈpʌdəl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : pudelar
  • The workers learned how to puddle the iron to create a stronger, more durable product.

Examples

  • Yeah, just wait for that to get red hot and then puddle it there a little bit.

    Straitjacket (2021)

  • You just, I'll heat that up and just puddle it down on there, man.

    Straitjacket (2021)

  • It consisted of 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a pure form of structural iron) and two and a half million rivets.

    Academic text (2008)

  • To improve the quality of the metal, the craftsmen decided to puddle the iron several times during the process.

  • During the experiment, we had to puddle the molten metal carefully to eliminate impurities.

Phrasal Verbs

to puddle up
  • Informal
7.6

To gather closely in a small group for warmth or company

Compounds

mud puddle
3 1.0

A small pool of muddy water on the ground after rain

puddle jumper
1 6.5

A small boat for shallow water or a person who jumps over puddles

puddle pirate
  • Baby Talk
9.4

A child who plays in puddles and pretends to find treasure

How Refined

to purify
30 4.6
to refine
  • Specialized
41 3.9
to puddle
  • Archaic
9.9
to smelt
  • Specialized
3 8.0

Surface Forms

puddle infinitive
puddled past
puddled past participle
puddling present participle
puddles third person singular

Etymology

Puddle in metalwork comes from shaping metal while it is soft and pasty, like working a thick 'puddle' of material to clean and change it. That's why 19th-century iron workers spoke of 'puddling' when they stirred and worked the metal to improve it.