fiddling

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of fiddle

   He was fiddling while Rome burned.

plural fiddlings

1. countableuncountableThe playing of music on a fiddle.
2. countableuncountableThe act of fidgeting.
3. countableuncountableTweaking; manipulation.

   [W]e, her doctors […] seemed powerless to prevent [side-effects], despite all our reassurances, and all our fiddlings and manipulations with the dosage[…]

   1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings

   1 more example

   Was it deliberate that the first week of October 1961 was chosen to conduct a national survey of passenger usage? Why October of all months, when the holiday season was over and families back at work and at school? Was this a fiddling of the figures to make an unfair case against rail-dependent resorts such as those in the West Country, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, where previously overloaded summer services would now only have a handful of locals on board?

   2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, pages 52–53

   Synonyms: fiddlery, tweakery

1. Of petty or trivial importance; footling

   It was a fiddling little fault, but ultimately proved disastrous.