diddle
Plural: diddles
Verb
Verb Forms: diddled, diddling, diddles
- To swindle, waste time, or fidget aimlessly.
- deprive of by deceit
- manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination
- To cheat; to swindle.
- To molest.
- To masturbate.
- To waste time.
- To totter, like a child learning to walk; to daddle.
- To manipulate a value at the level of individual bits (binary digits).
Noun
- In percussion, two consecutive notes played by the same hand (either RR or LL), similar to the drag, except that by convention diddles are played the same speed as the context in which they are placed.
- The penis.
- Gin (the drink).
Intj
- A meaningless word used when singing a tune or indicating a rhythm.
Examples
- She tried to DIDDLE her opponent by distracting them during their turn.
- What's that tune that goes "diddle di-dum, diddle di-dum, diddle di-dum-dum"?
Origin / Etymology
From dialectal duddle (“to trick”) (16th century), and diddle, duddle (“to totter”) (17th century), perhaps dissimilated from dialectal didder, dither (“to shake, tremble”), from Middle English dideren (“to shake, quiver, tremble”) and Middle English bididren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to trick, deceive”). Compare also Saterland Frisian diedelje (“to play or sing without a melody”), Dutch bedodden, bedotten (“to trick, fool, diddle”), German Low German Diedeldentjes (“pranks, pranking”). Possibly influenced or reinforced by the name (which itself was probably chosen as an allusion to duddle) of the swindling character Jeremy Diddler in Kenney's Raising the Wind (1803).
Meaning "to have sex with" is from the 19th century; "to masturbate" is from the 1950s. Compare dildo.
Synonyms
bunco, con, defraud, fiddle, gip, goldbrick, gyp, hornswoggle, mulct, nobble, play, rook, scam, short-change, swindle, toy, victimize, beat off, copulate with, deceive, dick around, go to bed with, loiter, lollygag, masturbate, play with oneself, reel, sleep with, stagger, sway, take for a ride
Scrabble Score: 9
diddle: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Worddiddle: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
diddle: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary