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Fiddling   /fˈɪdlɪŋ/   Listen
Fiddling

adjective
1.
(informal) small and of little importance.  Synonyms: footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, trivial.  "A footling gesture" , "Our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war" , "A little (or small) matter" , "A dispute over niggling details" , "Limited to petty enterprises" , "Piffling efforts" , "Giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"



Fiddle

verb
(past & past part. fiddled; pres. part. fiddling)
1.
Avoid (one's assigned duties).  Synonyms: goldbrick, shirk, shrink from.
2.
Commit fraud and steal from one's employer.
3.
Play the violin or fiddle.
4.
Play on a violin.
5.
Manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination.  Synonyms: diddle, play, toy.  "Don't fiddle with the screws" , "He played with the idea of running for the Senate"
6.
Play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly.  Synonyms: monkey, tamper.  "The reporter fiddle with the facts"
7.
Try to fix or mend.  Synonym: tinker.  "She always fiddles with her van on the weekend"



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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Fiddling" Quotes from Famous Books



... smashed, not by falling off the ladder, but by a row in the fair, I was obliged to give it up, for how could I run up the ladder with a patten on my foot, which they put on to make my broken leg as long as the other. Well, your hanner; being obliged to give up my bricklaying, I took to fiddling, to which I had always a natural inclination, and played about the streets, and at fairs, and wakes, and weddings. At length some Orange men getting acquainted with me, and liking my style of playing, invited me to their lodge, where they gave me to drink, and tould me that ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas

... spot where they appear he nears, Surprised at these unwonted signs of idling, He hears—alas! no music of the spheres, But an unhallow'd, earthly sound of fiddling! A melody which made him doubt his ears, The cause being past his guessing or unriddling; A pipe, too, and a drum, and shortly after, A most unoriental ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... for over our heads, sailing very comfortably through the windy stars, was the ship that had passed the summer in landlord's field. Her port-holes and her bay-window were blazing with lights, and there was a noise of singing and fiddling on her decks. "He's gone!" shouted landlord above the storm, "and he's taken half the village with him." I could only nod in answer, not having lungs like bellows ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough

... its deadening heat was over; September, bright, sunny and tonic, was come to revive the world. Rank foliage was shaking off the summer dust, and a myriad noisy insects were strumming, chirping, fiddling, buzzing, screeping in the dense undergrowth. It was evening when they boarded the train for the West and took the trail that both had taken before, but never with such a background of events or such an eagerness for what was in the future. As the train roared through ...
— The Preacher of Cedar Mountain - A Tale of the Open Country • Ernest Thompson Seton

... away from the gate, back where she could not see him, and stood fiddling with his cinch a bit, although it required no ...
— The Duke Of Chimney Butte • G. W. Ogden


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