Addles

to make or become confused.
to make or become rotten, as eggs.
mentally confused; muddled.
rotten:
addle eggs.
historical examples

they are a bad mixture of french freedom and spanish haughtiness which addles our brains.
the memoires of casanova, complete jacques casanova de seingalt

the irresolute man is lifted from one place to another; so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.
pearls of thought maturin m. ballou

the irresolute man hatches nothing, but addles all his actions.
dictionary of quotations from ancient and modern, english and foreign sources james wood

i say, gently stealing my hand into his; “there is nothing that addles the brains like muddling over accounts, is there?”
nancy rhoda broughton

verb
to make or become confused or muddled
to make or become rotten
adjective
(in combination) indicating a confused or muddled state: addle-brained, addle-pated
verb
(northern english, dialect) to earn (money or one’s living)
v.

1712, from addle (n.) “urine, liquid filth,” from old english adela “mud, mire, liquid manure” (cognate with old swedish adel “urine,” middle low german adel, dutch aal “puddle”).

used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) “egg that does not hatch, rotten egg,” literally “urine egg,” a loan-translation of latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan-translation of greek ourion oon “putrid egg,” literally “wind egg,” from ourios “of the wind” (confused by roman writers with ourios “of urine,” from ouron “urine”). because of this usage, from c.1600 the noun in english was taken as an adjective meaning “putrid,” and thence given a figurative extension to “empty, vain, idle,” also “confused, muddled, unsound” (1706). the verb followed a like course. related: addled; addling.