Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. drink, alcohol; note use as a drunken person in cit. 1673.

1673		M. Stevenson Poems 13: The Popinjay one Fuddle had before.
1674		T. Duffet Empress of Morocco Act II: Hamet they have drunk all the fuddle.
1689		R. L’Estrange Erasmus Colloquies 124: They have taken their Dose of Fuddle.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Fuddle Drink. This is Rum fuddle. c. this is excellent Tipple.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:4 18: And so, said I, we sipped our Fuddle.
1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 155: Don’t go away, they have had their Dose of Fuddle.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1890		J.E. Cheevers ‘I’m So Happy!’ 🎵 I took a walk last week and ran up against a friend; Said he, ‘Let’s have a fuddle;’ and stood me drinks no end.

2. an act of drinking, a state of intoxication; thus on the fuddle, on a drunken spree.

1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 240: It is brisk in the Mouth, very good to quench Drouth: / Is most excellent after a Fuddle.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 9: A Morning’s Draught of hissing Oat-Ale, after a feav’rish Fuddle.
1764		Low-life 24: Walking towards [...] Marybone and Stepney, in order to take large Morning Draughts, and secure the first Fuddle of the Day .
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 218: Swipey Bill, a translator of Soles, who has been out for a day’s fuddle.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 84: ‘Out upon the fuddle;’ said by the wife of a drinking cobler.
1833		Royal Cornwall Gaz. 21 Dec. 4/1: After a day’s fuddle at Old Dolly Lob’s Brandy shop.
1846		H.W. Forester My Shooting Box 131: Good stuff for a fuddle, Frank?
[1856		Houma Ceres (Terrebourne, LA) 20 Mar. 2/3: A machine [...] which enables a man to tell when he is getting too drunk to walk [...] is called a fuddlecometer].
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 415/1: At Woolwich we were all on the fuddle at the Dust Hole, and our two spokesmen were drunk.
1867		‘There’s Nothing Like Raising the Wind’ Champagne Charley Songster 27: I’ve been on the fuddle a week now.
1870		W.E.A. Axon Billy O’ Bent’s Berryin’ 4: This extraordinary activity had been rendered necessary by a three days’ ‘fuddle’.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 27 Oct. 7/3: The consequence of my fuddle was that in less than a week I had spent all the money.
1892		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 24 Feb. 4/1: N. happened to be on the fuddle.
1894		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Spanish Senora 🎵 While the old man is on the fuddle / Lodger and senora kiss and cuddle.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Oct. 1/1: A ‘one-time’ Town Clerk returned from a municipal conference in a fearsome state of fuddle [and] consideration for his cab was the cause of one Jehu’s re-‘fusel’ to drive him home.
1901		G. Douglas House with Green Shutters 221: I kenned young Gourlay was on the fuddle when I saw him swinging off this morning.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 248: But what’s the matter wi’ you this morning? Ain’t bin on the fuddle already, have you?
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 227: [He] has been on the [...] fuddle.

3. fig. use of sense 2, a generally muddled state.

c.1755		‘The Maiden’s Choice’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 167: And then for a fuddle between him and she.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 134: The perpetual possession of Bill Napper by a varying degree of fuddlement.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 189: The social evening at Jem Ward’s, to celebrate the outcome of the fight, ended in fiddle and fuddle.
1949		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 7 May [synd. col.] [Y]ou get in a sort of fuddle and walk on eggs for weeks.

4. an act of sexual intercourse [euph. for fuck n. (1a)].

c.1795		diary cited in C. Lyrons Sex among the Rabble 251–2: My flame being up I thrust her vigorously and she opened with a scream – a real joyful fuddle.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 32: An’ we’ll kiss and cuddle; / And mony a fuddle / Sall [sic] drive the langsome hours away.