piddle

[pid-l]

verb (used without object)

piddled, piddling 

1. to spend time in a wasteful, trifling, or ineffective way; dawdle (often followed byaround ).

   He wasted the day piddling around.

2. Informal.,  (especially of children and pets) to urinate.

verb (used with object)

piddled, piddling 

1. to waste (time, money, etc.); fail to utilize (usually followed byaway ).

piddle

/ ˈpɪdəl /

verb

1. informal,  (intr) to urinate

2. to spend (one's time) aimlessly; fritter

Other Word Forms

• piddler noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of piddle¹

First recorded in 1535–45; origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of piddle¹

C16: origin unknown

Example Sentences

It’s exciting as spectacle, but on the substance every element of the preceding sentence is piddling.

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There’s even a humbling sequence set in the real Carrara, where, against the quarry’s raw splendor, the mighty modern excavators look as piddling as Hot Wheels on the basement stairs.

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Yet on a comparative basis, they are piddling.

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Mencken points out that he’s not especially successful, that his business is “petty and piddling,” and to think of him as a leader is completely misguided.

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It also would have reduced Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a piddling afterthought; Nolan treats them instead as a profound absence, an indictment by silence.

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Related Words

• loiter 
• loll 
• saunter