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In a course of philosophy I heard “I mean it’s not like you’re going to fall asleep already, riddle me that”. My dictionary gives me only the noun’s signification “mystery”. but I guess it is used her as a verb. It’s mean something like “make that mysterious”?

fauve
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Riddle me that is an idiom that means: Go ahead and try to explain that to me.

It trades upon the secondary meaning of riddle which is to solve or explain a riddle to someone. Link to definition here.

So essentially when someone says "Riddle me that (or this)" they are saying:

I find the statement I just made to be puzzling to the point where I consider it to be a riddle. Go ahead and try to explain it to me.

When someone says that, they typically don't expect an answer to be easily forthcoming.

David M
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  • I'm not quite sure you can really call it an "idiom". OED sense 3 (for the ponder/puzzle verb, not the sift/separate with a sieve one) has To solve or answer (a riddle, question, etc.). Also: to solve a riddle for* (a person).* Essentially, it's just an ordinary construction. To me, an idiom is a form whose meaning can't be directly derived just from the literal dictionary definitions of the individual words. – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 02:53
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    @FumbleFingers Riddle me this or Riddle me that are idiomatic in the sense that you use them en bloc and in a singular manner that you would rarely use outside of the phrase. You would say solve that for me. I never hear anyone use riddle in this sense otherwise. Hence, I say idiom. Perhaps you'd prefer expression . . . but after our last discussion on this, I've found most dictionaries to give them semantic equivalence. – David M Mar 04 '14 at 02:58
  • Well, since I have OED open... idiom 3. A form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc., used in a distinctive way in a particular language, dialect, or language variety; spec. a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from the meanings of the individual words. – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 03:02
  • @FumbleFingers I don't deny that it is a known usage. But, it is more obscure in the sense that it is never used outside the expression (making it not as deducible). Hence I've called it an idiom. – David M Mar 04 '14 at 03:11
  • @FumbleFingers And, yes I'm stretching it. – David M Mar 04 '14 at 03:13
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    Note: People usually say riddle me this before stating a conundrum or riddle me that after it. – Bradd Szonye Mar 04 '14 at 03:34
  • @Bradd: In Russian version of Bonnie and Clyde KGB say "We riddle you thus" as they open fire & riddle the hapless couple with machine-gun fire. (If they'd been up on their Samuel Johnson, they'd have kicked them to death while shouting "We refute* you thus!"* :) – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 03:42
  • @FumbleFingers I prefer to defenestrate my enemies. – David M Mar 04 '14 at 03:45
  • Bloody Francophile! I suppose you're a fully paid-up supporter of Roseanne Barr's campaign to Bring back the guillotine, too. (Apparently she's only got the bankers in her sights, but maybe you could slip in a few grammarians as well! :) – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 03:54
  • @FumbleFingers No, no, no. I prefer to throw people out of windows a là The Defenestrations of Prague. I am NO FRANCOPHILE! – David M Mar 04 '14 at 03:59
  • By the way, did anyone notice that the use of riddle me that in the question was kinda weird? – Bradd Szonye Mar 04 '14 at 04:00
  • @BraddSzonye Yeah . . . philosophers. Bunch of itinerants running around having their way with the language! – David M Mar 04 '14 at 04:01
  • @Bradd: I've been so busy thinking up snappy comments I didn't pay any attention to the question - which I think is hopelessly Off Topic General Reference and a stupid example sentence from a near-illiterate (the source of OP's citation, I mean, not OP himself!) – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 04:06
  • @David: Steady on there! Obviously I don't think *I* am an idiot, and thanks to Google's better search facilities than the built-in one here, I've been able to identify a recent usage of my own. In context, I'm perfectly happy that I made a much better choice opting for riddle rather than answer - the issue being queried was complex, and more than justified a slightly quirky usage to alert to that fact. – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 22:17
  • @David: Admittedly it was more a "slightly whimsical citation" rather than being tchrist's own words as such, but Riddle me this, Batman obviously wasn't put up there to be ridiculed (effectively, he was defending both that and related usages). And without doubt tchrist is one of the most articulate and careful speakers/writers on this site. – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 22:32
  • @FumbleFingers I stand humbled by your obvious win here. I will delete my comment post haste. – David M Mar 04 '14 at 23:28
  • @David: Once again, "Steady on!". At the rate you're going, you're obviously learning from ELU faster than me (it took me over 3 years to get this far! :). So pretty soon I'll be the one getting outclassed! Seriously, the language looks vast at first, but after a while here you do start noticing that plus ca change... – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '14 at 23:41