verb · intransitive · rare

piddle

piddle · piddles · piddled · piddling

: to act or work ineffectually and wastefully(Often followed by about or around): to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.

UK/ˈpɪd.l̩/US/ˈpɪdəl/

» What are you piddle-farting around for? I could do that in 10 minutes.

Meaning

4 senses

(intransitive)(Often followed by about or around): to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.
(Southern US, intransitive, often)Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
(Australia, Namibia, South Africa, UK, euphemistic, intransitive, reflexive, slang)To urinate.
(intransitive, obsolete)Synonym of peck: to attack or eat with a beak.

More definitions

waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently
eliminate urine

Examples

2 sentences

What are you piddle-farting around for? I could do that in 10 minutes.
CC BY · Tatoeba · gustonrankin · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem
Why don't we stop arguing over these piddling matters and get to the issues at hand?
CC BY · Tatoeba · CM · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem

Origin

Unknown. Compare regional German piddlen, pitteln, pütteln, pühteln (“to pick at something

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.

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