"twiddle" meaning in All languages combined

See twiddle on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈtwɪdəl/ Audio: en-us-twiddle.ogg Forms: twiddles [plural]
Rhymes: -ɪdəl Etymology: Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{blend|en|twirl, twist, or twitch|fiddle|nocap=1}} blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle Head templates: {{en-noun}} twiddle (plural twiddles)
  1. A slight twist with the fingers.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-wkOXYwwM Categories (other): English blends Disambiguation of English blends: 12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12
  2. A wiggling movement.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-Jjgv3eqb Categories (other): English blends, Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of English blends: 12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5
  3. A small decorative embellishment.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-pCDs1rMe
  4. A small musical flourish.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-l7s-4W4U Categories (other): English blends, Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of English blends: 12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5
  5. A tilde.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-GG6rTdMz
  6. A drawn line that is curvy or twisted.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-eloyv~Ov
  7. A tiny bit.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-seNPerbe
  8. A tizzy.
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-noun-ONISW1bg Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈtwɪdəl/ Audio: en-us-twiddle.ogg Forms: twiddles [present, singular, third-person], twiddling [participle, present], twiddled [participle, past], twiddled [past]
Rhymes: -ɪdəl Etymology: Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{blend|en|twirl, twist, or twitch|fiddle|nocap=1}} blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle Head templates: {{en-verb}} twiddle (third-person singular simple present twiddles, present participle twiddling, simple past and past participle twiddled)
  1. (transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around. Tags: transitive Translations (to wiggle, fidget): въртя из ръцете си (vǎrtja iz rǎcete si) (Bulgarian), nyplätä (Finnish), tripoter (French), bidouiller (French), وَر رفتن (Persian), girar (Portuguese), теребить (terebitʹ) (Russian)
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-verb--Gs9oNYQ Categories (other): English blends Disambiguation of English blends: 12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12 Disambiguation of 'to wiggle, fidget': 90 2 2 6
  2. (transitive, computing) To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits). Tags: transitive Categories (topical): Computing
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-verb-Ygd5~6~g Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Persian translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 16 2 9 8 6 1 8 3 35 6 3 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 7 10 7 9 3 6 2 5 9 26 6 9 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 12 4 9 5 4 1 4 6 39 7 6 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 4 7 4 7 3 5 2 5 6 48 4 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 5 13 5 10 12 7 3 6 9 19 5 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 6 9 6 9 12 7 3 7 9 20 5 7 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 7 13 7 12 3 7 1 6 9 20 5 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Persian translations: 5 10 5 10 11 7 3 6 12 19 5 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 6 12 6 10 4 7 2 8 7 25 6 7 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
  3. (transitive, mathematics) To be in an equivalence relation with. Tags: transitive Categories (topical): Mathematics
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-verb-JD7JXaSk Topics: mathematics, sciences
  4. (intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-twiddle-en-verb-XOe-1RC6 Categories (other): English blends Disambiguation of English blends: 12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: twiddle one's thumbs, twiddler, twiddlesome, twiddling line, twiddle muff

Inflected forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "twiddle one's thumbs"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "twiddler"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "twiddlesome"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "twiddling line"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "twiddle muff"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "twirl, twist, or twitch",
        "3": "fiddle",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "twiddles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "twiddle (third-person singular simple present twiddles, present participle twiddling, simple past and past participle twiddled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She sat and nervously twiddled her hair while she waited.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1942, Emily Carr, “Singing”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-verb--Gs9oNYQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "wiggle",
          "wiggle"
        ],
        [
          "fidget",
          "fidget"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "vǎrtja iz rǎcete si",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "въртя из ръцете си"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "nyplätä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "tripoter"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "bidouiller"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "وَر رفتن"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "girar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 2 2 6",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "terebitʹ",
          "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
          "word": "теребить"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 16 2 9 8 6 1 8 3 35 6 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 10 7 9 3 6 2 5 9 26 6 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 12 4 9 5 4 1 4 6 39 7 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 7 4 7 3 5 2 5 6 48 4 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 13 5 10 12 7 3 6 9 19 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 9 6 9 12 7 3 7 9 20 5 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 13 7 12 3 7 1 6 9 20 5 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 10 5 10 11 7 3 6 12 19 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Persian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 12 6 10 4 7 2 8 7 25 6 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: diddle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits)."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-verb-Ygd5~6~g",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "flip",
          "flip"
        ],
        [
          "switch",
          "switch"
        ],
        [
          "adjacent",
          "adjacent"
        ],
        [
          "bit",
          "bit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, computing) To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mathematics",
          "orig": "en:Mathematics",
          "parents": [
            "Formal sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in an equivalence relation with."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-verb-JD7JXaSk",
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "equivalence relation",
          "equivalence relation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, mathematics) To be in an equivalence relation with."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-verb-XOe-1RC6",
      "links": [
        [
          "James Orchard Halliwell",
          "w:James Halliwell-Phillipps"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtwɪdəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-twiddle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg/En-us-twiddle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪdəl"
    }
  ],
  "word": "twiddle"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "twirl, twist, or twitch",
        "3": "fiddle",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "twiddles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "twiddle (plural twiddles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Edgar Pangborn, A Mirror for Observers:",
          "text": "He put away the receiver with a twiddle of pudgy fingers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Corille Fraser, A Coloured Canvas:",
          "text": "The hero, who must have been only a very few years older than Tom himself, gave a cursory nod and a twiddle of his fingers, then turned to his left to address Daniel Lysons who did not answer but caught Tom’s eye and raised his own eyebrow at this rudeness.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A slight twist with the fingers."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-wkOXYwwM",
      "links": [
        [
          "twist",
          "twist"
        ],
        [
          "finger",
          "finger"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1945, James Agate, A Shorter Ego, page 144:",
          "text": "Why should I agree that a twiddle of skirts from right to left and pointing a toe in one direction mean “He loves me,” while the reverse twiddle and the toe pointed in the opposite direction “He loves me not”?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, James D. Mauseth, Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, page 522:",
          "text": "Instead, flagellar motion causes the bacterium to swim smoothly (called a run), then stop and tumble (a twiddle), followed by another period of smooth swimming",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Diana Gabaldon, A Breath Of Snow And Ashes, page 223:",
          "text": "A raised white brow in my direction, and a twiddle of the pipe stem toward the trail indicated that his wife was at our house, if that's who I was looking for.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A wiggling movement."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-Jjgv3eqb",
      "links": [
        [
          "wiggling",
          "wiggle"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1887, William Morris, The Society of the Future:",
          "text": "A great many fidgety occupations will come to an end: we shan’t put a pattern on a cloth or a twiddle on a jug-handle to sell it, but to make it prettier and to amuse ourselves and others.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Reports of Patent, Design, and Trade Mark Cases:",
          "text": "Literally construed the Act would allow design right to be claimed in the design of an insignificant part—a mere ‘twiddle’, as it was put in argument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Nicholas Blake, Head of a Traveller, →ISBN:",
          "text": "That’s Mara’s usual line, you know—three curves and a twiddle, label it “Object,” and bob’s your uncle.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small decorative embellishment."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-pCDs1rMe",
      "links": [
        [
          "decorative",
          "decorative"
        ],
        [
          "embellishment",
          "embellishment"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "12 12 9 11 2 8 2 6 12 9 6 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, Truth, volume 46, page 366:",
          "text": "“Oh, auntie,” she exclaims, “these great Goths of Englishmen put a twiddle into the last bar of the ‘Minstrel Boy,’ just fancy that!”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1925, The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, page 59:",
          "text": "That opening little flutter down the scale evokes an atmosphere when played by the flute; on the pianoforte it is a mere twiddle.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1939, The Nineteenth Century and After, volume CXXVI, page 76:",
          "text": "With a toot on the flute and a twiddle on the fiddle, O!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Mark Ribowsky, Dreams to Remember:",
          "text": "The band came in with a basic rock arrangement, Cropper’s triplets stamped by Jackson’s metronomic snare and cymbal, and Jenkins added neat little twiddle flourishes.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small musical flourish."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-l7s-4W4U",
      "links": [
        [
          "musical",
          "musical"
        ],
        [
          "flourish",
          "flourish"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, Yechiam Yemini, Robert Strom, Shaula Yemini, Protocol specification, testing, and verification, →ISBN:",
          "text": "For those places which feed input arcs leading to more than one transition, a “twiddle” symbol (e.g., ‘~’) may be used as the enabling predicate for one of the transitions.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, George G. Woodworth, Biostatistics: A Bayesian Introduction, →ISBN, page 316:",
          "text": "The twiddle symbol indicates that a node has a particular distribution. For example, x ~ dbin(p,n) means that “x is distributed like the number of successes in n observations of a Bernoulli process.” Inadvertent use of an “=” sign instead of a twiddle or an arrow is one of the most common reasons for a compilation error message.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tilde."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-GG6rTdMz",
      "links": [
        [
          "tilde",
          "tilde"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1895, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest - Volume 10, page 198:",
          "text": "It will then be seen that the inscriptions are very nearly alike, but an expert in Arabic or Vedic writing would recognize at once that they differ in more respects than in having a “twiddle too much or a twiddle too little.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1952, Arthur Walsh Titherley, Shakespeare’s identity: William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, page 275:",
          "text": "But D’s flourish was not generally a simple curl but a twiddle, as seen in the words of (35, 37, 70, 79, 94), sealf (85, 146) and yf (95, 142); this twiddle, which also appears in the Mistress Poem (p. 256), was however not an exclusive feature of f₁ but a striking personal habit, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music At Long Verney, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Professional scribes (French, Burgundian, what you will) must sometimes have spoiled a copy – duplicated a word, misplaced a twiddle.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A drawn line that is curvy or twisted."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-eloyv~Ov"
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1968, Mademoiselle: The Magazine for the Smart Young Woman:",
          "text": "Trying to tune in on your own face color is a bit like that: a twiddle too red, a twiddle too pale, and the whole image goes haywire.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, Eve Bunting, Janet Hamm Needs a Date for the Dance, →ISBN, page 7:",
          "text": "But I don’t care a twiddle if I offend Danny DePuzo or not.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Norman Rose, Harold Nicolson, →ISBN, page cxxxvi:",
          "text": "It should give you, somewhere, deep down a twiddle of respect.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tiny bit."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-seNPerbe"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "4 14 4 10 9 9 2 11 9 16 4 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1938, Grade Teacher, volume 56, page 46:",
          "text": "Hey, diddle, diddle, we’re all in a twiddle, / Although we’re cuffed and we’re cuffed, / To be quite exact we cannot act, / For, you see, we are all of us stuffed.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, Judy Veisel, Flight of Fancy, page 19:",
          "text": "Your mother’s going to have a twiddle fit if you dumped a perfectly good lord in the river.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Matt Soper, Raising Up a Testimony, →ISBN, page 64:",
          "text": "In addition, nowhere in the article did I sense that anyone is angry at Serrano or blaming the school for lax security or getting their tighties in a twiddle about this or that.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tizzy."
      ],
      "id": "en-twiddle-en-noun-ONISW1bg",
      "links": [
        [
          "tizzy",
          "tizzy"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtwɪdəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-twiddle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg/En-us-twiddle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪdəl"
    }
  ],
  "word": "twiddle"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English blends",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪdəl",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪdəl/2 syllables",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with Persian translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "twiddle one's thumbs"
    },
    {
      "word": "twiddler"
    },
    {
      "word": "twiddlesome"
    },
    {
      "word": "twiddling line"
    },
    {
      "word": "twiddle muff"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "twirl, twist, or twitch",
        "3": "fiddle",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "twiddles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "twiddled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "twiddle (third-person singular simple present twiddles, present participle twiddling, simple past and past participle twiddled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She sat and nervously twiddled her hair while she waited.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1942, Emily Carr, “Singing”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "wiggle",
          "wiggle"
        ],
        [
          "fidget",
          "fidget"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs",
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: diddle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "flip",
          "flip"
        ],
        [
          "switch",
          "switch"
        ],
        [
          "adjacent",
          "adjacent"
        ],
        [
          "bit",
          "bit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, computing) To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs",
        "en:Mathematics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in an equivalence relation with."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "equivalence relation",
          "equivalence relation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, mathematics) To be in an equivalence relation with."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "James Orchard Halliwell",
          "w:James Halliwell-Phillipps"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtwɪdəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-twiddle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg/En-us-twiddle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪdəl"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "vǎrtja iz rǎcete si",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "въртя из ръцете си"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "nyplätä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "tripoter"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "bidouiller"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "وَر رفتن"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "girar"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "terebitʹ",
      "sense": "to wiggle, fidget",
      "word": "теребить"
    }
  ],
  "word": "twiddle"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English blends",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪdəl",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪdəl/2 syllables",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with Persian translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "twirl, twist, or twitch",
        "3": "fiddle",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "twiddles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "twiddle (plural twiddles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Edgar Pangborn, A Mirror for Observers:",
          "text": "He put away the receiver with a twiddle of pudgy fingers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Corille Fraser, A Coloured Canvas:",
          "text": "The hero, who must have been only a very few years older than Tom himself, gave a cursory nod and a twiddle of his fingers, then turned to his left to address Daniel Lysons who did not answer but caught Tom’s eye and raised his own eyebrow at this rudeness.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A slight twist with the fingers."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "twist",
          "twist"
        ],
        [
          "finger",
          "finger"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1945, James Agate, A Shorter Ego, page 144:",
          "text": "Why should I agree that a twiddle of skirts from right to left and pointing a toe in one direction mean “He loves me,” while the reverse twiddle and the toe pointed in the opposite direction “He loves me not”?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, James D. Mauseth, Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, page 522:",
          "text": "Instead, flagellar motion causes the bacterium to swim smoothly (called a run), then stop and tumble (a twiddle), followed by another period of smooth swimming",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Diana Gabaldon, A Breath Of Snow And Ashes, page 223:",
          "text": "A raised white brow in my direction, and a twiddle of the pipe stem toward the trail indicated that his wife was at our house, if that's who I was looking for.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A wiggling movement."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "wiggling",
          "wiggle"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1887, William Morris, The Society of the Future:",
          "text": "A great many fidgety occupations will come to an end: we shan’t put a pattern on a cloth or a twiddle on a jug-handle to sell it, but to make it prettier and to amuse ourselves and others.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Reports of Patent, Design, and Trade Mark Cases:",
          "text": "Literally construed the Act would allow design right to be claimed in the design of an insignificant part—a mere ‘twiddle’, as it was put in argument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Nicholas Blake, Head of a Traveller, →ISBN:",
          "text": "That’s Mara’s usual line, you know—three curves and a twiddle, label it “Object,” and bob’s your uncle.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small decorative embellishment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "decorative",
          "decorative"
        ],
        [
          "embellishment",
          "embellishment"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, Truth, volume 46, page 366:",
          "text": "“Oh, auntie,” she exclaims, “these great Goths of Englishmen put a twiddle into the last bar of the ‘Minstrel Boy,’ just fancy that!”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1925, The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, page 59:",
          "text": "That opening little flutter down the scale evokes an atmosphere when played by the flute; on the pianoforte it is a mere twiddle.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1939, The Nineteenth Century and After, volume CXXVI, page 76:",
          "text": "With a toot on the flute and a twiddle on the fiddle, O!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Mark Ribowsky, Dreams to Remember:",
          "text": "The band came in with a basic rock arrangement, Cropper’s triplets stamped by Jackson’s metronomic snare and cymbal, and Jenkins added neat little twiddle flourishes.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small musical flourish."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "musical",
          "musical"
        ],
        [
          "flourish",
          "flourish"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, Yechiam Yemini, Robert Strom, Shaula Yemini, Protocol specification, testing, and verification, →ISBN:",
          "text": "For those places which feed input arcs leading to more than one transition, a “twiddle” symbol (e.g., ‘~’) may be used as the enabling predicate for one of the transitions.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, George G. Woodworth, Biostatistics: A Bayesian Introduction, →ISBN, page 316:",
          "text": "The twiddle symbol indicates that a node has a particular distribution. For example, x ~ dbin(p,n) means that “x is distributed like the number of successes in n observations of a Bernoulli process.” Inadvertent use of an “=” sign instead of a twiddle or an arrow is one of the most common reasons for a compilation error message.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tilde."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tilde",
          "tilde"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1895, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest - Volume 10, page 198:",
          "text": "It will then be seen that the inscriptions are very nearly alike, but an expert in Arabic or Vedic writing would recognize at once that they differ in more respects than in having a “twiddle too much or a twiddle too little.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1952, Arthur Walsh Titherley, Shakespeare’s identity: William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, page 275:",
          "text": "But D’s flourish was not generally a simple curl but a twiddle, as seen in the words of (35, 37, 70, 79, 94), sealf (85, 146) and yf (95, 142); this twiddle, which also appears in the Mistress Poem (p. 256), was however not an exclusive feature of f₁ but a striking personal habit, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music At Long Verney, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Professional scribes (French, Burgundian, what you will) must sometimes have spoiled a copy – duplicated a word, misplaced a twiddle.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A drawn line that is curvy or twisted."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1968, Mademoiselle: The Magazine for the Smart Young Woman:",
          "text": "Trying to tune in on your own face color is a bit like that: a twiddle too red, a twiddle too pale, and the whole image goes haywire.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, Eve Bunting, Janet Hamm Needs a Date for the Dance, →ISBN, page 7:",
          "text": "But I don’t care a twiddle if I offend Danny DePuzo or not.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Norman Rose, Harold Nicolson, →ISBN, page cxxxvi:",
          "text": "It should give you, somewhere, deep down a twiddle of respect.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tiny bit."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1938, Grade Teacher, volume 56, page 46:",
          "text": "Hey, diddle, diddle, we’re all in a twiddle, / Although we’re cuffed and we’re cuffed, / To be quite exact we cannot act, / For, you see, we are all of us stuffed.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, Judy Veisel, Flight of Fancy, page 19:",
          "text": "Your mother’s going to have a twiddle fit if you dumped a perfectly good lord in the river.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Matt Soper, Raising Up a Testimony, →ISBN, page 64:",
          "text": "In addition, nowhere in the article did I sense that anyone is angry at Serrano or blaming the school for lax security or getting their tighties in a twiddle about this or that.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tizzy."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tizzy",
          "tizzy"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtwɪdəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-twiddle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg/En-us-twiddle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-twiddle.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪdəl"
    }
  ],
  "word": "twiddle"
}

Download raw JSONL data for twiddle meaning in All languages combined (12.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.