Hypertext Webster Gateway: "piddling"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Piddling \Pid"dling\, a.
Trifling; trivial; frivolous; paltry; -- applied to persons
and things.
The ignoble hucksterage of piddling tithes. --Milton.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Piddle \Pid"dle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Piddled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Piddling}.] [Cf. dial. Sw. pittla to keep picking at, Sw.
peta to pick.]
1. To deal in trifles; to concern one's self with trivial
matters rather than with those that are important.
--Ascham.
2. To be squeamishly nice about one's food. --Swift.
3. To urinate; -- child's word.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
piddling
adj : (informal terms) small and of little importance; "a fiddling
sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are
lilliputian compared with those of countries that are
at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "Mickey Mouse
regulations"; "a dispute over niggling details";
"limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts";
"giving a police officer a free meal may be against the
law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction" [syn: {fiddling},
{footling}, {lilliputian}, {little}, {Mickey Mouse}, {niggling},
{piffling}, {petty}, {picayune}, {trivial}]
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