In Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends there’s the following description of the double agent Kim Philby gradually coming undone while stationed in Washington in the 1950s:
Philby was only thirty-eight but looked older. There was already something raddled in his handsome features. The eyes remained bright, but the bags beneath them were growing heavier, and the lunches at Harvey’s were taking a toll on his waistline.
At first blush I thought “raddled” must be a misprint for “rattled.” But somehow that seemed unlikely so I looked it up and found that there really is a word raddled that means old and worn-out or “confused . . . often associated with alcohol and drugs.” Since Philby was prematurely aged and drinking epic amounts at the time the word fit perfectly.
Nobody know where raddled comes from. Its first use in English may have come in a 1694 translation of Rabelais that described “a . . . fellow, continually raddled, and as drunk as a wheelbarrow.” Whatever that means. It may derive from “raddle,” which is a red ochre used for marking animals. From there, to be “raddled” came to refer to an overapplication of rouge. I don’t know how it then made the leap to meaning broken-down, confused and discomposed, but it blends in nicely with “addled” and “rattled.” Well played by Macintyre.
Alex Good 
No big deal in the UK, raddled is in continual use, plague-raddled, injury-raddled, all phrases regularly used to descibe things, I guess a shock to those with limited vocab…
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Drunk with Covid?
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You could say raddled with booze. It’s like riddled, you’d say riddled, wouldn’t you?
If you liked my comments after responding, I would know that you had responded and circle back to read your words…
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I would not say riddled with booze. Only riddled with bullets.
I like everyone’s comments. Does clicking the star thing actually do something?
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It lets the other person know that you’re read it…
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Even if I didn’t “like” it?
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Not saying I didn’t like your comment, just thinking there should be a distinction between “read” and “liked.”
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Yup, well you can write your own code for that, Bunty. Download a plug in for a new set of buttons. But liking a comment is one way to continue the conversation, let’s them know that you read and understood what they said, and possible responded…
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This is harder than bins.
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shoulda woulda coulda but they dinna so hit the damned like button so we know you are in receiving mode.
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Likety like like like.
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Good job!
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Wtf?
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😀 😀
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Maybe the over-rouged raddle thing can do the leap because heavy drinkers usually have very rosy cheeks and noses.
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I think that might be it.
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And just to note, Dix says raddled is in continuous use in the U.K. But it’s the first time I heard of it so maybe just used in Scotland. Or Blingfield.
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OR perhaps Dix was just firing off more of his alternative fAcTs!
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A possibility indeed, though it may be people say it all the time and I have been elsewhere at the time. Up here if someone’s drunk they’re ‘in their cups’ and if very drunk, they’re ‘mortal’.
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Raddle seems a real oddity, with a meaning that’s been in flux for a while. Another meaning is that of being worn out, broken-down, tired, or old (the Free Dictionary specifies having wrinkles or creases). I could see that applying to Philby’s appearance too in the passage.
You might hear “in their cups” around here as a quaint sort of circumlocution, but “mortal” isn’t used (though I’ve seen it a couple of times in things I’ve read).
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It’s an interesting word, I’m going to try and use it in all its iterations as I go about through life!
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Just don’t get raddled!
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My raddling days are over. Well at least numbered.
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