Meaning

noun a difficult problem

noun a coarse sieve (as for gravel)

verb pierce with many holes

originFrom Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hrīder, from Proto-West Germanic *hrīdrā, from Proto-Germanic *hrīdrą, *hrīdrǭ (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0