# piddle
## English
### Alternative forms

* piddel, pidle (obsolete)

### Etymology

Unknown, although possibly originally paw + -le (suffix forming verbs involving continuous or repeated movement). In later use, a euphemistic diminutive of piss. The noun derives from the verb.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈpɪd.l̩/
* (US) IPA: /ˈpɪdəl/, /ˈpɪd.l̩/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪdl, -ɪdəl

### Noun

piddle (plural piddles)
* (British, Australia, euphemistic slang) Piss: urine.
** 1870, Cythera's Hymnal, page 77:The spunk with his piddle comes bubbling.
* (British, Australia, euphemistic slang) A piss: an act of urination.
** 1937, Eric Honeywood Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, page 625:Piddle, urine; occ. the act of making water.
** 2013, Angela Lemanis, Contemplating Life from the Back Step‎, page 84: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.
* (British, figurative) Nonsense or a trivial matter.
** 1910 March 2, Rupert Brooke, letter:
    It's the alteration of the little words that makes all the difference between Poetry & piddle.

#### Synonyms

* (urine): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urine
* (urination): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urination

#### Derived terms

* piddle pack

### Verb

piddle (third-person singular simple present piddles, present participle piddling, simple past and past participle piddled)
* (intransitive) Often followed by about or around: to act or work ineffectually and wastefully.
** 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:[…] neuer ceaſinge piddeling about theyr bowe and ſhaftes, when they be well, […]
** 1991, Douglas Coupland, “I Am Not a Target Market”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 17:I watch Dag and Claire piddle about the desert[.]
* (intransitive, obsolete) Synonym of peck: to attack or eat with a beak.
** 1598, Richard Barckley, A Discourse of the Felicitie of Man..., page 217: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.
* (intransitive, now Southern US, often with 'with') Synonym of nibble: to pick at or toy with one's food, to eat slowly or insubstantially.
** a. 1620, Jeremiah Dyke, Diuers Select Sermons on Seuerall Texts..., page 292:Diseases... that make them eate nothing at all, or else they doe but piddle and trifle.
** 2000 May 9, Myrtle Beach Sun-News, Sect. A, p. 1:
    As about seven seniors quietly eat meat patties, mashed potatoes and canned peaches, Newberry piddles with the food.
* (UK, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, euphemistic slang, intransitive or reflexive) To urinate.
** 1784, cited in Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Vol. VI, p. 128:
    Ha, ha, ha, Paddy shit in his breaches, ha, ha, ha, I shall laugh till I piddle myself.

#### Synonyms

* (urinate): widdle, see also Thesaurus:urinate

#### Derived terms

* piddling, piddly, piddle away

#### Related terms

* pightle
* widdle

#### Translations
### References

* “piddle, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
* “piddle, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.