faddle

English

Etymology

Compare fiddle, fiddle-faddle.

Verb

faddle (third-person singular simple present faddles, present participle faddling, simple past and past participle faddled)

1. To fiddle (play aimlessly).

   Synonym: fiddle

   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, quoting an anonymous reviewer in the Allahabad Pioneer, June 27, 1878, “Our Lady of the Snows – The Boarders”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, page 99:

     I am afraid I must be at bottom, what a cheerful Indian critic has dubbed me, "a faddling hedonist" […]

   • 1906, The Building News and Engineering Journal, volume 91, page 896:

     He faddles over the needless, such as hanging maps up on the walls in the section and putting inkpots on the mantelpiece.

   • 2017, M.J. Trow, chapter 11, in The Island:

     I had that awful woman, Celia Thaxter, sitting next to me, boring me to death with what a marvellous writer Mark Twain was […] I said, "look, dear, he's sitting just over there. Why don't you go and talk to him?" She faddled around, blushing like a schoolgirl and saying she couldn't possibly.

2. (UK, dated) To dote on.
   • 1893, Sebastian Kneipp, My Water-cure Tested for Than 35 Years and Published for the Cure of Diseases and the Preservation of Health, page 26:

     Even then, when nurse is ready to take baby out for a walk, properly wrapped up, faddling Mamma comes to examine, if not a little corner remains to be closed to the air.

   • 1950, Cecil Woodham-Smith, quoting Mary Elizabeth Mohl, Florence Nightingale 1820-1910, page 435:

     “The last year she spent faddling at Aunt Mai's […] I am not sure this is necessary to her happiness, this faddling after other people. Now, to faddle after folk, who don't want you, is madness . . . but to faddle after those that do is very good employment. Now […] you are the very person for her, for she dotes on you […] ”

   • 1974, Sydney John Watson, The Cottage Countess: An Historical Romance, page 44:

     She was doing no good in church all put about and faddling after Blackie.