Definition of "riddle" []

• To pierce with numerous holes; perforate: riddle a target with bullets. (verb-transitive)
• To spread throughout: "Election campaigns have always been riddled with demagogy and worse” ( New Republic). (verb-transitive)
• To put (gravel, for example) through a coarse sieve. (verb-transitive)
• A coarse sieve, as for gravel. (noun)
• A question or statement requiring thought to answer or understand; a conundrum. (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.

• "But the riddle is usually about, what is the truth?"
• "Not only do the congregants not understand that the solution to the riddle is the basic tenet of their faith, but more important, they fail to recognize that Alroy is quite literally the answer to their prayers."
• "The "riddle" is here identical with the "parable," only that the former refers to the obscurity, the latter to the likeness of the figure to the thing compared."