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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

canoodle.

To caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəˈnuːdl̩/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈnud(ə)l/General-American
  1. To caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.

    slang · transitive
    He’s got a big smile on his face—who’s he been canoodling recently?
  2. To cajole or persuade (someone).

    figuratively · slang · transitive
  3. Of a person: to caress, fondle, or pet another person; of two people: to caress, fondle, or pet each other; also, to have sexual intercourse; to make love.

    intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

The origin of the verb is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From a blend of ca(ress) + noodle (“to engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time; to mess around, to play”). * From German knuddeln (“to cuddle; (originally) to embrace tightly”); or related to Low German knuddle (“a clump, a knot”), a diminutive of knude, related to Old High German knodo, knoto (“a knot”) (modern German Knoten (“knot”)); ultimate etymology unknown. Compare also Norwegian Bokmål knulle (“to fuck”), Swedish knulla (“to fuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *knuzlijaną (“to beat; to mash”) (and also compare the semantics of the Scandinavian cognates of fuck). The noun is probably derived from the verb.

noun/kəˈnuːdl̩/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈnud(ə)l/General-American
  1. A caress, a cuddle, a hug.

    slang
Where this word comes from

The origin of the verb is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From a blend of ca(ress) + noodle (“to engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time; to mess around, to play”). * From German knuddeln (“to cuddle; (originally) to embrace tightly”); or related to Low German knuddle (“a clump, a knot”), a diminutive of knude, related to Old High German knodo, knoto (“a knot”) (modern German Knoten (“knot”)); ultimate etymology unknown. Compare also Norwegian Bokmål knulle (“to fuck”), Swedish knulla (“to fuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *knuzlijaną (“to beat; to mash”) (and also compare the semantics of the Scandinavian cognates of fuck). The noun is probably derived from the verb.

noun/kəˈnuːdl̩/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈnud(ə)l/General-American
  1. A donkey.

    slang
  2. A foolish lover; also (generally) a fool.

    slang
Where this word comes from

Origin unknown.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.