piddling
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of piddling
Explanation
If your part time job pays badly, you might describe your income as piddling, or insignificant. Why does English have so many words for suggesting that something is contemptibly small? The adjective piddling is a favorite choice when sums of money are concerned; a more dignified, but no less contemptuous word, is paltry. Piddling comes from piddle, which has changed in meaning over the years — in the early 1600's it meant "pick at one's food," while by the late 1700's it meant "to urinate."
Vocabulary lists containing piddling
Boy: Tales of Childhood
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Unimportant
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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.
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
Yet on a comparative basis, they are piddling.
From New York Times • May 3, 2024
The Irish ranked 110th in sacks per game coming into Saturday, a piddling average of 1.57 sacks per game.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 15, 2023
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
Another time he tried a new variety—Rainiers—that wouldn’t take because he used too much nitrogen: lots of green, plants high and fluffy, but small hard fruit, a piddling harvest.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
