twiddly

comparative twiddlier · superlative twiddliest

1. informalCapable of being finely or idly adjusted with the fingers.

   Radio – with its buttons and twiddly knobs and white noise in between – is on the tip of a huge wave of change, courtesy of the Internet.

   2011, Fi Glover, Travels With My Radio: I Am An Oil Tanker

   1 more example

   Through the open doorway Nedda could see […] the back of Mr. Cuthcott in a twiddly chair, surrounded by sheets of paper reposing on the floor, shining like autumn leaves on a pool of water.

   1915, John Galsworthy, The Freelands

2. informalHaving an elaborately twisted form.

   It was her nose was the worst. It seemed to have been twisted into a hook with a twiddly bit at the top.

   2011, Pamela Haines, Men on White Horses

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   The design of an indicator is often — indeed usually — thought to be the business of the engineer, perhaps aided by someone — an artist or a "stylist" — who adds an aesthetic touch, a twiddly bit, a strip of chromium, a dash of paint, or better still several dashes in clashing colours, of which a bilious yellow will be one.

   1958, New Scientist

   Everyone has a computer, everyone has the same software, and everyone thinks they can stick a couple of butterflies onto a twiddly background and they have an illustration. They don't have an illustration; they have decoration.

   2010, Lawrence Zeegen, Complete Digital Illustration: A Master Class in Image-Making

3. informalIn music, having a rapid series of musical notes.

   The bugle called, a twiddly bit and then one long note.

   2011, Gavin Lyall, All Honourable Men

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   There are moments when the band sounds oddly like its acoustic predecessor, and there are some feints at free jazz, but the most curious episode, unlike any other live Miles I know, is a long spacey improvisation using wood flute, related less to the twiddly studio jams than to the ritual atmospherics of Chicago's creative-music vanguard.

   2001 September 7, Kevin Whitehead, “The Gap Band”, in Chicago Reader