piddle

See also: Piddle

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete): piddel, pidle

Etymology

Unknown, although possibly originally paw + -le (“forming verbs involving continuous or repeated movement”). In later use, a euphemistic diminutive of piss. The noun derives from the verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪdl/
• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪdəl/, /ˈpɪdl/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdl, -ɪdəl

Noun

piddle (plural piddles)

1. (British, Australia, euphemistic slang) Piss: urine.
   • 1870, Cythera's Hymnal, p. 77:

     The spunk with his piddle comes bubbling.

2. (British, Australia, euphemistic slang) A piss: an act of urination.
   • 1937, Eric Honeywood Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, p. 625:

     Piddle, urine; occ. the act of making water.

3. (British, figurative) Nonsense or a trivial matter.
   • 1910 March 2, Rupert Brooke, letter:

     It's the alteration of the little words that makes all the difference between Poetry & piddle.

Synonyms

• (urine): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urine
• (urination): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urination

Verb

piddle (third-person singular simple present piddles, present participle piddling, simple past and past participle piddled)

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

     […] neuer ceaſinge piddeling about theyr bowe and ſhaftes, when they be well, […]

   • 1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X, p. 17:

     I watch Dag and Claire piddle about the desert.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) Synonym of peck: to attack or eat with a beak.
   • 1598, Richard Barckley, A Discourse of the Felicitie of Man..., p. 217:

     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.

3. (intransitive, now South US, often with 'with') Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
   • a. 1620 Jeremiah Dyke, Diuers Select Sermons on Seuerall Texts..., p. 292:

     Diseases... that make them eate nothing at all, or else they doe but piddle and trifle.

   • 2000 May 9, Myrtle Beach Sun-News, Sect. A, p. 1:

     As about seven seniors quietly eat meat patties, mashed potatoes and canned peaches, Newberry piddles with the food.

4. (UK, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, euphemistic slang, intransitive or reflexive) To urinate.
   • 1784, cited in Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Vol. VI, p. 128:

     Ha, ha, ha, Paddy shit in his breaches, ha, ha, ha, I shall laugh till I piddle myself.

Synonyms

• (urinate): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urinate

Derived terms

• piddling, piddly, piddle away

Related terms

• pightle
• widdle

References

• “piddle, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• “piddle, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.