peddle

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

• Rhymes: -ɛdəl
• Homophones: pedal, petal (some dialects)

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. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.
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)‎:

     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.

• peddler, pedlar
• peddling