riddled

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪdəld/

riddled

1. simple past and past participle of riddle

riddled (comparative more riddled, superlative most riddled)

1. (also figurative) Damaged throughout by holes.
   • 2024 March 20, Conrad Landin, “"Farcical" Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act isn't working”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 25:

     When the legislation was debated by the House of Commons, Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said it was "riddled with holes", while former Conservative Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was "badly written".

2. Having (something) spread throughout, as if by an infestation.
   1. Taking a noun complement construed with the preposition with.

      Synonym: lousy with

      Coordinate term: peppered with

      The minister claimed that the old benefits system was riddled with abuse and fraud.

      • 2023 November 17, Blake Montgomery, “White House condemns Elon Musk’s ‘abhorrent’ antisemitic tweets”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

        Another anti-extremism organization, The Center for Countering Digital Hate, filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by X on Thursday, calling the suit “riddled with legal deficiencies”.

   2. Taking a noun complement that precedes the adjective, forming a compound.

      Synonym: -ridden

      a hole-riddled sweater

      • 2008, Joan London, The Good Parents, Random House Australia, →ISBN, page 235:

        They took a swig each from an old bottle of sherry and ate some stale digestive biscuits sealed in a tin in the mouse-riddled cupboards.

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