diddly

noun, intj — 3 senses

diddly

noun

UK /ˈdɪdəli/

Etymology Short for diddly-squat.

1

Informal A small amount of no worth.

They head down the mountain, back to base camp, and when they get there they don't say diddly. They don't talk. Not a word, like they're deaf and dumb.1990, Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried:

Derived terms: diddly-squat

diddly

intj

Etymology Onomatopoeic.

1

A written representation of a trill sound.

On the handcar mornings or evenings he would amuse his companion by pumping away to a triple-tongued pattern, which he would hum emphatically as they rolled along: "dum diddly diddly diddly diddly diddly diddly dee dee-dum dum diddly diddly diddly diddly diddly diddly dee..."1993, Hugh Hood, Be sure to close your eyes: a novel:
...When combined with the following picked note, this gives a rhythmic 'diddly-dum' effect.2005, Gordon Giltrap, Total Giltrap: Guitar Encounters of the Fingerstyle Kind:

1 more example

It's easy enough for him to go “diddly-diddly-diddly-dum” a thousand and one times, whereas with me it's “diddly-diddly-diddly- omigodIcan'tbreathe-dum!”)2008, Kristie Theobald, Irish Angels:

diddly

noun

Etymology Possibly shortened from diddlywhacker.

1

Childish, Slang, Sometimes penis

"My child is going to be taught all about sex as soon as he can understand. Mother-in-law is always clucking to him about his diddly. No, no, I say, you must call it penis."1968, Monica Dickens, The Landlord's Daughter, Doubleday & Company, page 268:

Related terms: diddly bow, scrum-diddly-umptious

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.