Definition of "puddling" [pud•dling]

• Purification of impure metal, especially pig iron, by heating and stirring in an oxidizing atmosphere. (noun)
• Compaction of wet material, such as clay, in order to make a watertight paste. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "However, by "puddling" I managed to make a small dam which would at night collect enough water to admit of a limited amount of panning or cradling by day."
• "The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in here."
• "He is blessed by cold, the only solid being in a landscape of puddling humanity."