piddle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to spend time in a wasteful, trifling, or ineffective way; dawdle (often followed byaround ).
He wasted the day piddling around.
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Informal. (especially of children and pets) to urinate.
verb (used with object)
verb
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informal (intr) to urinate
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to spend (one's time) aimlessly; fritter
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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piddlesimple
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piddlessimple
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have piddledperfect
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has piddledperfect
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am piddlingprogressive
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are piddlingprogressive
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is piddlingprogressive
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have been piddlingperfect progressive
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has been piddlingperfect progressive
Past
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piddledsimple
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had piddledperfect
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was piddlingprogressive
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were piddlingprogressive
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had been piddlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of piddle
First recorded in 1535–45; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“They told me today I could piddle out there a bit,” Hayden said, pointing to the terrace outside her office, with its view of the Capitol dome.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2016
The pilots take snacks and "piddle packs" to relieve themselves into.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2015
Now, most animals would have lost control of their bowels in the wake of that smack and yell, but this Luxi bull didn’t so much as piddle.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 19, 2012
I don't care if every Mac product comes with a magic button on the side that makes it piddle gold coins and resurrect the dead.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 28, 2011
But the piddle runs down the wall and soaks into the old dirt floor.
From "The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle" by Leslie Connor
And who’s the lucky staffer who gets to clean up Tiaa’s piddles?
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2016
U.S. hockey piddles along, never approaching the prominence of Canada or Russia, Sweden or even the Czech Republic.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 21, 2014
The U. S. piddles along with a couple of thousand ounces.
From Time Magazine Archive
I quits in 1925 and comes to Fort Worth and piddles at odd jobs till my rheumatis' git so bad five years ago.
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration
He works a one-horse farm for Mr. Cathcart and piddles a little at the planing mills at Adgers.
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives, Part 2 by Work Projects Administration
Then, after it piddled around with some field goals and led 20-3, it went ahead and organized quarterback Stetson Bennett’s 57-yard touchdown pass flying up the right side to Jermaine Burton for 27-3.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 1, 2022
The old beagle piddled near the front door.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 28, 2018
But, no, Bill Oddie really did present an outside broadcast from a farm for BBC Breakfast, and he really did get piddled on by a cow.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 10, 2013
Unfortunately, I piddled it away through my own stupidity, and my wife's influence, etc.
From Time Magazine Archive
He used to translate thirty or forty verses in the morning before rising and, in his own characteristic phrase, "piddled over them for the rest of the day."
From The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Pope, Alexander
It’s exciting as spectacle, but on the substance every element of the preceding sentence is piddling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
We loved her when she was open and raw, giving unflinchingly monologues on small stages she often ran onto, with piddling crowds she had to win over.
From Salon ● May 27, 2023
President Biden himself called on De León, a piddling City Council member, to step down, but he paid no attention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2023
There are few targets riper for satire than the customs and conventions of affluent suburbanites, and yet only a piddling handful of pop-culture parodies go for the jugular with the requisite precision or salutary bloodlust.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2021
If you could have seen him . . . piddling every five minutes during the night.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
