noodle

[nood-l]

verb (used without object), noo·dled, noo·dling.

to improvise a musical passage in a casual manner, especially as a warm-up exercise.
Informal.
1. to play; toy: to noodle with numbers as a hobby.
2. to improvise, experiment, or think creatively: The writers noodled for a week and came up with a better idea for the ad campaign.

verb (used with object), noo·dled, noo·dling.

Informal.
1. to manipulate or tamper with: She denied that she had noodled the statistics to get a favorable result.
2. to make or devise freely as an exercise or experiment (sometimes followed by up): The architects noodled up a model of a solar house.

Verb Phrases

noodle around, Informal. to play, experiment, or improvise.

Origin of noodle

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for noodling

Contemporary Examples of noodling

In 1998, Joel Thomas Zimmerman was 16 years old, noodling around with vintage DOS music software like Impulse Tracker.
Mickey Mouse Takes Deadmau5 to Court
Jay Michaelson
September 3, 2014
Scott Brusaw had been noodling with the idea since he was a kid.
Pave the Roads With Solar Panels?
The Daily Beast
June 3, 2014
“Uh, I'm not going to be doing a lot of noodling,” Romney said.
Will Paul Ryan Help Romney With Blue-Collar Whites?
Andrew Romano
August 27, 2012
I enjoy fly-fishing, but noodling, I'm afraid, I'll leave to Paul.
Will Paul Ryan Help Romney With Blue-Collar Whites?
Andrew Romano
August 27, 2012
But doing some noodling around on my own suggests that you have to go back to 1968 to find such a result.
Michael Tomasky on Mitt Romney, the Unlikable Presidential Candidate
Michael Tomasky
May 13, 2012

Historical Examples of noodling

Young ganders and any old ganders or geese which are to be marketed are used for noodling.
Ducks and Geese
Harry M. Lamon
Noodling geese is a method of hand feeding which has for its purpose the production of the best fattened geese.
Ducks and Geese
Harry M. Lamon

British Dictionary definitions for noodling

noodling

noun

slang aimless musical improvisation

noodle

noun

(often plural) a ribbon-like strip of pasta: noodles are often served in soup or with a sauce

Word Origin for noodle

C18: from German Nudel, origin obscure

noodle

noun

US and Canadian a slang word for head (def. 1)
a simpleton

Word Origin for noodle

C18: perhaps a blend of noddle 1 and noodle 1

noodle

verb

(intr) slang to improvise aimlessly on a musical instrument

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for noodling

noodle

"narrow strip of dried dough," 1779, from German Nudel, which is of unknown origin. West Flemish noedel and French nouille are German loan-words. The older noun meaning "simpleton, stupid person" (1753) probably is an unrelated word, as is the slang word for "head" (attested from 1914).

noodle

1937 (implied in noodling), from noun meaning "improvised music," 1926, probably from noodle (n.), on analogy of the suppleness of the food and that of the trills and improvised phrases in jazz improvisations. Related: Noodled.