piddle

See also: Piddle

English

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

piddle (plural piddles)

(Britain, Australia, euphemistic slang) Piss: urine.
- 1870, Cythera's Hymnal, p. 77:
  The spunk with his piddle comes bubbling.
(Britain, Australia, euphemistic slang) A piss: an act of urination.
- 1937, Eric Honeywood Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, p. 625:
  Piddle, urine; occ. the act of making water.
(Britain, figuratively) 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.

piddle (third-person singular simple present piddles, present participle piddling, simple past and past participle piddled)

(intransitive, often with 'around' or 'about') To work or act ineffectually and wastefully.
- 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, Bk. ii, f. 7v:
  Neuer ceasynge piddelynge about your bowe & shaftes whan they be well.
- 1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X, p. 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..., p. 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 South 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..., p. 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.
(Britain, Australia, 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.

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