OLD RIDDLES

1. My first means equality, my second inferiority, and my whole superiority.

2. [Interpret this riddle literally]
    In my first, my second sat, my third and fourth I ate.

3. My first is a feminine possessive adjective. My second is needed for a wedding. My whole is a fish.

4. [To be taken in context of its time] 

    What house is always murmuring, though all that dwell therein are dumb?

HINT:
1: The first word is used in tennis.

Answers: 

1. MATCH - LESS - MATCHLESS  

2. IN SAT I ATE - INSATIATE 

3. HER - RING - HERRING

4. A RIVER

 

 

OLD RIDDLES

1)
My first (syllable) is an abbreviation for company.
My second is a woman who might shun company.
My third is something that summons company.
My whole something that amuses company.

2)
My first, though water, cures no thirst;
My second is one with a soul.
And when my second is on my first,
He then is called my whole.

3)
I am small, but when entire,
Can set a forest or town afire;
Let one letter disappear,
I then can hold a herd of deer.
Take one more letter off, 
And you will find
I once held all of human kind.

4)
My first my love will never know;
My second it will never grow.
But to my soul,
It shall be my whole.

5)
An iron horse with a flaxen tail,
The faster it runs, the shorter it grows.

Answers:

1)
CO
NUN
DRUM
CONUNDRUM  

2)
SEA
MAN 
SEAMAN 

3)
SPARK
  PARK
    ARK 

4)
END
LESS
ENDLESS 

5. NEEDLE (and thread)

7 OLD RIDDLES

1)
Come up and we go,
Go down and we stay.

2)
My second is performed by my first, and, it is thought,
A thief by the marks of my whole may be caught.

3)
I dance to music I cannot hear,
Though I am harmless, I inspire fear.
With the wind and the deer, I am one,
Though slow as a snail, from me you can't run.

4)
Pronounced in Heaven, muttered in Hell,
An echo caught faintly the sound as it fell.
On the edge of the earth it was permitted to rest,
On the edge of death its presence confessed.

5)
Often held, but never touched;
Always wet, but never rusts.
Often bites, but seldom bit,
To use me well, you must have wit.

6)
My first is a creature whose breeding's unclear;
My second a price some must pay.
My whole can be found in the river of Time,
And refers to events of today.

7)
An ever-changing flower with no pattern to bloom,
As likely at sunrise, as at night, as at noon.
When the bulb is grown and thoroughly drowned,
The whole thing shatters, and the plant crashes down.

Answers:

1. Anchor
2. Footstep
3. Shadow
4. The letter "H"
5. Tongue
6. Current (cur - rent)
7. Cloud 

OLD RIDDLES - NEW ANSWERS

Old Riddles:

1. Why was the belt arrested?
2. Why did the picture have to go to jail?

Old Answers:

1. It held up a pair of pants.
2. It was framed.

New Answers:

1. It was wasted. (waisted)
2. It was a crime scene.

Credit New Answers:
Jenson Sampley - 5th grader

NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle
April 3, 2016
Will Shortz

OLD RIDDLE

The riddle below appeared in the November 12, 1803 edition of the Boston Weekly Magazine and has remained unsolved ever since. Can you come up with an answer that's been waiting for 213 years?

I am both man and woman too,
And go to school as good boys do.

(Possible) Answer:

A ruler

TWO OLD RIDDLES

1)
While I did live, I food did give,
Which many one did daily eat.
Now being dead, you see they tread
Me under feet about the street.

2)
I saw five birds all in a cage, 
Each bird had but one single wing,
They were an hundred years of age,
And yet did fly and sweetly sing.
The wonder did my mind possess,
When I beheld their age and strength;
Besides, as near as I can guess, -
Their tails were thirty feet in length.

Answers:

1. Cow 
2. Bells in a steeple

OLD RIDDLE
By Jonathan Swift

We are little brethren twain,
Arbiters of loss and gain;
Many to our counters run,
Some are made, and some undone.
But men find it, to their cost,
That few are made, but numbers lost;
Though we play them tricks for ever,
Yet they always seek our favor. 

Answer:

Pair of dice

PASSOVER RIDDLE

Who knoweth one? I know One:
One is God who is over heaven and earth.
Who knoweth two? I know two.
Two tables of the covenant; but One is our God
Who is over the heavens and the earth.

[And so on to the last verse, which is:]

Who knoweth thirteen? I know thirteen:
Thirteen divine attributes, twelve tribes, eleven stars,
Ten commandments, nine months preceding childbirth,
Eight days preceding circumcision, seven days of the week,
Six books of the Mishnah, five books of the Law,
Four matrons, three patriarchs, two tables of the covenant;
But One is our God who is over the heavens and the earth.

THREE OLD RIDDLES

1)
A man of fourscore winters white
Sat dozing in his chair;
His frosted brow was quite my first,
With glorious silver hair.

My whole lay playing at his feet,
And a glance upward stole;
My second, I can wager you,
Was father of my whole.

2)
One thousand, two hundred,
Nothing and one,
Transposed, give a word
Expressive of fun.

3)
I welcome you home, I cross the wide sea,
I frighten the thief, and I grow on a tree.

Answers:

1. GRANDSON 
2. MCCOI = COMIC
3. BARK

FOUR OLD RIDDLES

1. What is that which was born without a soul, lived and had a soul, yet died without a soul?

2)
When first my maker brought me to mind,
He gave me eyes, but left me blind;
He formed a nose which could not smell,
A mouth with no voice nor tongue to tell.
Yet oft the young and fair through me.
Though I hide the face, do plainly see.

3)
My first makes all nature appear with one face;
My second has music, beauty, and grace.
My whole, when the winter hangs dull o'er the earth,
Is the source of much pleasure, of mischief, of mirth.

4)
Join the name of a beast to a quarter of beef,
And a tree you will have with an ever-green leaf.

Answers:

1. The whale that swallowed Jonah 
2. Mask
3. Snowball 
4. Box

THREE OLD RIDDLES

1)
To a word of consent, add one half of a fright,
Next subjoin what you never beheld in the night;
These rightly connected, you'll quickly obtain
What millions have seen, but will ne'er see again.

2)
My first a blessing sent to earth,
Of plants and flowers to aid their birth;
My second surely was designed
To hurl destruction on mankind;
My whole a pledge from pardoning heaven,
Of wrath appeased and sins forgiven.

3)
Ye riddling folk, disclose my name,
No doubt you quickly will descry it;
The self-same characters proclaim
The fruit, and how you'd wish to buy it.

HINT:
3. The answer is a common fruit and its anagram.

Answers:

1. Yesterday
2. Rainbow 
3. PEACH - CHEAP

TWO OLD RIDDLES

1)
Of a brave set of brethren I stand at the head,
And to keep them quite warm, I cram three in a bed;
Six of them in prison I cruelly put(t),
And three I confine in a mean little hut.
To escape my fell grasp, three reside in the sky,
And, though strange it may seem, we have all but one eye.

Who am I and who are my brothers?

2)
I'm a singular creature, pray tell me my name,
I partake of my countrymen's glory and fame;
I daily am old, and I daily am new,
I am praised, I am blamed, I am false, I am true.
I'm the talk of the nation, while I'm in my prime,
But forgotten when once I've outlasted my time.

Answers:

1. I am the letter A, and my brothers are the other 25 letters of the alphabet.
2. Newspaper

THREE OLD RIDDLES

1)
The caller all rejoice to see,
Desired above his betters;
The reigning favorite is he
Among all men of letters.

2)
My whole a thing
With a terrible sting;
But cut off my head,
And still more you'll me dread.

3)
Two splendid horses
In a never-ending race;
Each runs ahead of the other,
But never changes place.

Answers:

1. POSTMAN 
2. WASP / ASP 
3. DAY AND NIGHT

I've hands and feet and features fine,
For some I even tell the time;
I'm sometimes seen upon the moon,
Many seek me out at noon.

I walk with you each pleasant day,
I chase the children when at play -
They cannot catch me, though they try,
Yet they're as fleet of foot as I.

Whene'er the morn is clear and bright,
My form towers to a wondrous height;
But when the dinner hour is nigh,
More broad and short and thick am I.

If before you I proceed,
And if you wish to take the lead,
Just turn and go the other way,
Or wait for a different time of day.

Answer:

SHADOW 

THREE OLD RIDDLES

1)
They say my first is very bright,
And what they say is true;
But only in my second can
My first be seen by you.
My second would without my first
Be far from being bright;
My whole is what the working man
Welcomes with delight.

2)
Write one hundred and add one,
And then with five unite;
When one and fifty you have joined,
You'll have what is polite.

3)
Both the offspring of shame,
And by modesty bred;
Neither written or printed,
But constantly red.

The symbol of virtue,
And also of vice;
I come when not wanted,
And may - or may not - be nice.

HINTS:
1. One of seven
2. Not 100 + 1

Answers:

1. SUNDAY 
2. CIVIL  (Roman Numerals) 
3. BLUSH 

THREE OLD RIDDLES

1. What has neither top nor bottom but can hold flesh, blood, and bones?

2)
A beautiful woman in a garden was placed,
Her beauty was fair as the sun;
In one hour of her life she became a man's wife
And died before she was born.

3)
Two patient creatures and a preposition,
Produce a monster worthy of perdition.

Answers:

1. Ring
2. Eve 
3. Assassin

Abu Muhammad Al-Qasim AL-HARIRI (1054-1122)

What groom is it who weds, both in secret and openly, two sisters, and no offense in his wedlock is ever found? When waiting on one, he waits as well on the other. If husbands are partial, no such bias is seen in him. His attentions increase as the sweethearts are growing grey, and so does his largess. What a rare thing in married men!

Answer:

A Khol Pencil eyeliner

1)
I have no head, and a tail I lack,
But oft have arms, and legs, and back;
I dwell in the palace, tavern, and hut -
It's a meager residence where I am not.
If a king were present - I tell you no fable,
I still should be placed at the head of the table.

2)
A word that's composed of three letters alone,
And is backward and forward the same;
Without speaking a word makes its sentiments known,
And to beauty lays principal claim.

3)
The reverse of fourteen,
The extremes of eleven,
Unite them and she'll tempt
Six men in seven.

HINT:
3. Part of the answer uses Roman Numerals.

Answers:

1. Chair 
2. Eye
3. VIXEN

FOUR OLD RIDDLES

1)
What's in the church,
But not the steeple?
The parson has it,
But not the people.

2)
Twenty-six children, including me,
Tell me the name of my family.

3)
What has twelve faces that never wear makeup,
And forty-two eyes that cannot see?

4)
What can be found in a shell, but not in the sea?
What is as yellow as the sun and as white as snow?

Answers:

1. The letter R 
2. The alphabet 
3. A pair of dice
4. An egg 

FIVE OLD RIDDLES  IN VERSE

1)
My first three letters once killed a queen to love inclined;
My next four letters on a beggar you may find.
My last two letters a pronoun to readers and myself applies;
My whole a vegetable that many will buy.

2)
"Mother dear, please say I may
Go down and skate upon the bay."
"My little son, you cannot go
Upon the ice in the bay below.
This very morn did father say,
Ere to his whole he went away,
'John must keep first the second today.'"

3)
My whole is a circle complete,
Beheaded I'm part of the feet;
Behead me again, if you wish,
'Twill bring to your notice a fish.

4)
My whole is a valued gem,
I deck the costly diadem;
Erase my first letter and I stand,
High-honored in the royal land;
Cut off the last, my first regain,
A well-known fruit I do explain.

5)
Part of a foot with good judgement transpose,
And the answer you'll find just under your nose.

Answers:

1. ASP + A RAG + US -  ASPARAGUS
2. OFF + ICE - OFFICE
3. WHEEL - HEEL - EEL
4. PEARL -EARL - PEAR
5. INCH - CHIN