piddle
verbEtymology Unknown. Compare regional German piddlen, pitteln, pütteln, pühteln (“to pick at something, pick at one's food”), dialectal German Pitzel (“small effort, small task”). Alternatively, perhaps originally from paw or put + -le (suffix forming verbs involving continuous or repeated movement). In later use, a euphemistic diminutive of piss, though not directly related to it. The noun derives from the verb.
1
(Often followed by about or around): to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.
- […] neuer ceaſinge piddeling about theyr bowe and ſhaftes, when they be well, […]1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 136:
- I watch Dag and Claire piddle about the desert[.]1991, Douglas Coupland, “I Am Not a Target Market”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 17:
2
Obsolete Synonym of peck: to attack or eat with a beak.
- As [Mahomet] was preaching... there commeth a doue flying towards him, & alighteth vpon his shoulder, and pidleth in his eare, looking for meate, hauing vsed her before to feede in his eare for the same purpose.1598, Richard Barckley, A Discourse of the Felicitie of Man..., page 217:
3
Southern US, Often, With 'with' Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
- Diseases... that make them eate nothing at all, or else they doe but piddle and trifle.a. 1620, Jeremiah Dyke, Diuers Select Sermons on Seuerall Texts..., page 292:
- As about seven seniors quietly eat meat patties, mashed potatoes and canned peaches, Newberry piddles with the food.2000 May 9, Myrtle Beach Sun-News, Sect. A, p. 1
4
Australia, Namibia, South Africa, UK, Euphemistic, Slang To urinate.
- Ha, ha, ha, Paddy shit in his breaches, ha, ha, ha, I shall laugh till I piddle myself.1784, cited in Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Vol. VI, p. 128
- Synonyms
- widdle
- Derived terms
- piddle away, piddle pack, piddlepants, piddler, piddling, piddly, piffle