Brewer's: Potter

To go poking about, meddling and making, in a listless, purposeless manner. Pudder, podder, pother, bother, and puddle are varieties of the same word. To pudder is to stir with a puddering pole; hence, to confuse. Lear says of the tempest- “May the great gods that keep this dreadful puider o'er our head,” meaning confusion. To puddle iron is to stir it about with a puddering-pole.

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