piddle

plural piddles · alternative obsolete piddel · alternative obsolete pidle

1. AustraliaUKeuphemisticslangPiss: urine.

   The spunk with his piddle comes bubbling.

   1870, Cythera's Hymnal, page 77

   Synonyms: widdle

2. AustraliaUKeuphemisticslangA piss: an act of urination.

   Piddle, urine; occ. the act of making water.

   1937, Eric Honeywood Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, page 625

   1 more example

   On the way out to the gardens, he had to stop for a piddle but was so weak he couldn't maintain his balance while lifting his rear leg.

   2013, Angela Lemanis, Contemplating Life from the Back Step, page 84

   Synonyms: widdle

3. UKfigurativelyNonsense or a trivial matter.

   It's the alteration of the little words that makes all the difference between Poetry & piddle.

   1910 March 2, Rupert Brooke, letter

present singular third person piddles · participle present piddling · participle past piddled · past piddled · alternative obsolete piddel · alternative obsolete pidle

1. intransitive(Often followed by about or around): to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.

   I watch Dag and Claire piddle about the desert[.]

   1991, Douglas Coupland, “I Am Not a Target Market”, in Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 17

   1 more example

   […] neuer ceaſinge piddeling about theyr bowe and ſhaftes, when they be well, […]

   1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 136

2. intransitiveobsoleteSynonym of peck: to attack or eat with a beak.

   As [Mahomet] was preaching... there commeth a doue flying towards him, & alighteth vpon his shoulder, and pidleth in his eare, looking for meate, hauing vsed her before to feede in his eare for the same purpose.

   1598, Richard Barckley, A Discourse of the Felicitie of Man..., page 217

   Synonyms: peck

3. Southern USintransitiveoftenSynonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.

   Diseases... that make them eate nothing at all, or else they doe but piddle and trifle.

   a. 1620, Jeremiah Dyke, Diuers Select Sermons on Seuerall Texts..., page 292

   1 more example

   As about seven seniors quietly eat meat patties, mashed potatoes and canned peaches, Newberry piddles with the food.

   2000 May 9, Myrtle Beach Sun-News, Sect. A, p. 1

   Synonyms: nibble

4. AustraliaNamibiaSouth AfricaUKeuphemisticintransitivereflexiveslangTo urinate.

   Ha, ha, ha, Paddy shit in his breaches, ha, ha, ha, I shall laugh till I piddle myself.

   1784, cited in Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Vol. VI, p. 128

   Synonyms: widdle

1. A small river in Dorset, England.
2. A brook in Worcestershire, England.