See fiddle with in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "fiddles with",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddling with",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddled with",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddled with",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "fiddle with (third-person singular simple present fiddles with, present participle fiddling with, simple past and past participle fiddled with)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Stop fiddling with your food!",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate (an object), especially in a nervous, restless or aimless manner."
],
"id": "en-fiddle_with-en-verb-UhhDEeFy",
"links": [
[
"manipulate",
"manipulate"
],
[
"nervous",
"nervous"
],
[
"restless",
"restless"
],
[
"aimless",
"aimless"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "55 8 34 3",
"sense": "to manipulate an object restlessly",
"word": "play with"
},
{
"_dis1": "55 8 34 3",
"sense": "to manipulate an object restlessly",
"word": "toy with"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "If you fiddle with the controls, you might be able to get a better TV picture.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "The deadline for my report is two o'clock, but I'm still fiddling with it.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Paul Scherz, Practical electronics for inventors, page 452:",
"text": "Fiddle with vertical VOLT/DIV knob until signal comes into view.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Sheryl J. Anderson, Killer Riff, page 49:",
"text": "As technology got better, he'd go back and fiddle with them, convinced he could clean them up enough for release.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To tinker with: to make small adjustments or improvements to (something), especially in an experimental or unskilled manner."
],
"id": "en-fiddle_with-en-verb-mRPEyqfR",
"links": [
[
"tinker",
"tinker"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2004, Jay P. DeCima, Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate, page 65:",
"text": "Don't Fiddle With Sellers Who Have No Equity",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate in order to gain something for oneself."
],
"id": "en-fiddle_with-en-verb-ZfzhyiYR",
"links": [
[
"manipulate",
"manipulate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) To manipulate in order to gain something for oneself."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "12 2 85 1",
"sense": "to manipulate in order to gain something",
"word": "mess with"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "5 33 13 49",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 25 15 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"with\"",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "12 28 12 48",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "9 33 9 49",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "6 31 6 56",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 22 11 59",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Maori translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 20 8 64",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 34 0 66",
"word": "refiddle with"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Chris, 22:22 from the start, in Penn Radio:",
"text": "I was in the Woodley Park–Zoo in D.C. and mom and sister were waiting to see the pandas, so me and my pops broke away to check out the monkey house. Well, there was a beautiful teacher, I mean we're talking a ten, she was blond, had a low-cut dress on, just gorgeous. And she has about eight or nine students and she's pointing out all the different monkeys. And me and my dad noticed this huge orangutan kind of fiddling with himself. And on close [censored] And we kept checking it out and he was looking directly at the teacher. Well, a couple minutes passed by [censored] he proceeds to [censored] that's when the teacher noticed and, you know, took the kids away very hurriedly. But I looked at my dad and said, you know, they're so much like us.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To masturbate."
],
"id": "en-fiddle_with-en-verb-~E9p9hIT",
"links": [
[
"masturbate",
"masturbate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) To masturbate."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "25 22 18 35",
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "tweak"
},
{
"_dis1": "25 22 18 35",
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "adjust"
},
{
"_dis1": "25 22 18 35",
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "tinker"
}
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "23 26 27 24",
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "to restlessly toy with",
"word": "rāwekeweke"
},
{
"_dis1": "23 26 27 24",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to restlessly toy with",
"word": "toquetear"
}
],
"word": "fiddle with"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrasal verbs",
"English phrasal verbs formed with \"with\"",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Maori translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "refiddle with"
}
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "fiddles with",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddling with",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddled with",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddled with",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "fiddle with (third-person singular simple present fiddles with, present participle fiddling with, simple past and past participle fiddled with)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Stop fiddling with your food!",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate (an object), especially in a nervous, restless or aimless manner."
],
"links": [
[
"manipulate",
"manipulate"
],
[
"nervous",
"nervous"
],
[
"restless",
"restless"
],
[
"aimless",
"aimless"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "If you fiddle with the controls, you might be able to get a better TV picture.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "The deadline for my report is two o'clock, but I'm still fiddling with it.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Paul Scherz, Practical electronics for inventors, page 452:",
"text": "Fiddle with vertical VOLT/DIV knob until signal comes into view.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Sheryl J. Anderson, Killer Riff, page 49:",
"text": "As technology got better, he'd go back and fiddle with them, convinced he could clean them up enough for release.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To tinker with: to make small adjustments or improvements to (something), especially in an experimental or unskilled manner."
],
"links": [
[
"tinker",
"tinker"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2004, Jay P. DeCima, Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate, page 65:",
"text": "Don't Fiddle With Sellers Who Have No Equity",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate in order to gain something for oneself."
],
"links": [
[
"manipulate",
"manipulate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) To manipulate in order to gain something for oneself."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English slang",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Chris, 22:22 from the start, in Penn Radio:",
"text": "I was in the Woodley Park–Zoo in D.C. and mom and sister were waiting to see the pandas, so me and my pops broke away to check out the monkey house. Well, there was a beautiful teacher, I mean we're talking a ten, she was blond, had a low-cut dress on, just gorgeous. And she has about eight or nine students and she's pointing out all the different monkeys. And me and my dad noticed this huge orangutan kind of fiddling with himself. And on close [censored] And we kept checking it out and he was looking directly at the teacher. Well, a couple minutes passed by [censored] he proceeds to [censored] that's when the teacher noticed and, you know, took the kids away very hurriedly. But I looked at my dad and said, you know, they're so much like us.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To masturbate."
],
"links": [
[
"masturbate",
"masturbate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) To masturbate."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "to manipulate an object restlessly",
"word": "play with"
},
{
"sense": "to manipulate an object restlessly",
"word": "toy with"
},
{
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "tweak"
},
{
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "adjust"
},
{
"sense": "to adjust the position",
"word": "tinker"
},
{
"sense": "to manipulate in order to gain something",
"word": "mess with"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "to restlessly toy with",
"word": "rāwekeweke"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to restlessly toy with",
"word": "toquetear"
}
],
"word": "fiddle with"
}
Download raw JSONL data for fiddle with meaning in English (4.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (9e2b7d3 and f2e72e5). 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.