See fiddly in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
"word": "fiddliness"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fiddle",
"3": "y"
},
"expansion": "fiddle + -y",
"name": "suffix"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From fiddle + -y, from the verb.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fiddlier",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddliest",
"tags": [
"superlative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "er"
},
"expansion": "fiddly (comparative fiddlier, superlative fiddliest)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The buttons on the tiny mobile phone were too fiddly.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Requiring dexterity to operate."
],
"id": "en-fiddly-en-adj-HvlnBSBh",
"links": [
[
"dexterity",
"dexterity"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "89 4 3 4",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "laborioso"
},
{
"_dis1": "89 4 3 4",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "macchinoso"
},
{
"_dis1": "89 4 3 4",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "complicato"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1988, Road & Track - Volume 40, page 119:",
"text": "See, Barbados, like certain other fiddly little islands— Antigua, Saint Lucia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain, Australia— is filled with a genus of hotspurs fiercely dedicated to motoring on the wrong side of the road.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, John Charalambous, Furies, →ISBN, page 189:",
"text": "But the draping roses, and the double bell of dress and overskirt — fiddly, too bloody fiddly!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Martin O'Brien, The Dying Minutes, →ISBN, page 182:",
"text": "Plate after plate of fiddly Lebanese mezes that tasted of lemon and breadcrumbs and chopped coriander rather than the tidbits of lamb and beef and prawns that they covered, the whole tedious meal made only bearable by a very creditable Château Musar.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Robert Winder, The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden, →ISBN:",
"text": "The cover, which was also the title page, promised an exhaustive collection of lists, tables, “extraordinary matches” and “other interesting information”, but the most cursory flick-through revealed only a sequence of cricket scorecards and a summary of the game's already fiddly laws.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Having many small bits or embellishments."
],
"id": "en-fiddly-en-adj-3b1CkETa",
"links": [
[
"small",
"small"
],
[
"bit",
"bit"
],
[
"embellishment",
"embellishment"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) Having many small bits or embellishments."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2012, Terry Rummins, So, I've Got Parkinson's Disease, page 62:",
"text": "I can divide my movements into two types: gross motor and fine motor (in other words, large movements and small, fiddly movements) and, as I have already described, I have far more problems with the latter than the former.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of or relating to fiddling or fidgeting."
],
"id": "en-fiddly-en-adj-K1VZmof~",
"links": [
[
"fiddling",
"fiddle"
],
[
"fidget",
"fidget"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "4 32 3 62",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 30 8 52",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms suffixed with -y",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "9 30 7 54",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "5 31 3 60",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "3 31 3 62",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 29 7 56",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Italian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2005, R. MacDonald, J. Marsh, Disconnected Youth?: Growing up in Britain’s Poor in Neighbourhoods, →ISBN:",
"text": "Because benefit dependence was understood to confine people to poverty ('bend the rules - you've got to in this world cause of the pittance you get off the government') and because doing fiddly work indicated a commitment to self-reliance ('at least they're working') it was widely condoned.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Justin Cruickshank, Realism and Sociology, →ISBN:",
"text": "The other mjinority group has, by being members of the appropriate social networks, access to fiddly jobs.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Richard K. Brown, The Changing Shape of Work, →ISBN, page 117:",
"text": "None of the normal conditions of employment (for example health and safety regulations, training, sickness benefits, etc.) were afforded to fiddly workers and when some suffered industrial injuries (at the steel works) no compensation was forthcoming.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Pertaining to occasional under-the-table work by people who receive unemployment benefits"
],
"id": "en-fiddly-en-adj-Bu9WmpKX",
"links": [
[
"occasional",
"occasional"
],
[
"under-the-table",
"under-the-table"
],
[
"unemployment benefit",
"unemployment benefit"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈfɪdli/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɪdli"
}
],
"word": "fiddly"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English terms suffixed with -y",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɪdli",
"Rhymes:English/ɪdli/2 syllables",
"Terms with Italian translations"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "fiddliness"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fiddle",
"3": "y"
},
"expansion": "fiddle + -y",
"name": "suffix"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From fiddle + -y, from the verb.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fiddlier",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "fiddliest",
"tags": [
"superlative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "er"
},
"expansion": "fiddly (comparative fiddlier, superlative fiddliest)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The buttons on the tiny mobile phone were too fiddly.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Requiring dexterity to operate."
],
"links": [
[
"dexterity",
"dexterity"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1988, Road & Track - Volume 40, page 119:",
"text": "See, Barbados, like certain other fiddly little islands— Antigua, Saint Lucia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain, Australia— is filled with a genus of hotspurs fiercely dedicated to motoring on the wrong side of the road.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, John Charalambous, Furies, →ISBN, page 189:",
"text": "But the draping roses, and the double bell of dress and overskirt — fiddly, too bloody fiddly!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Martin O'Brien, The Dying Minutes, →ISBN, page 182:",
"text": "Plate after plate of fiddly Lebanese mezes that tasted of lemon and breadcrumbs and chopped coriander rather than the tidbits of lamb and beef and prawns that they covered, the whole tedious meal made only bearable by a very creditable Château Musar.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Robert Winder, The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden, →ISBN:",
"text": "The cover, which was also the title page, promised an exhaustive collection of lists, tables, “extraordinary matches” and “other interesting information”, but the most cursory flick-through revealed only a sequence of cricket scorecards and a summary of the game's already fiddly laws.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Having many small bits or embellishments."
],
"links": [
[
"small",
"small"
],
[
"bit",
"bit"
],
[
"embellishment",
"embellishment"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) Having many small bits or embellishments."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2012, Terry Rummins, So, I've Got Parkinson's Disease, page 62:",
"text": "I can divide my movements into two types: gross motor and fine motor (in other words, large movements and small, fiddly movements) and, as I have already described, I have far more problems with the latter than the former.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of or relating to fiddling or fidgeting."
],
"links": [
[
"fiddling",
"fiddle"
],
[
"fidget",
"fidget"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2005, R. MacDonald, J. Marsh, Disconnected Youth?: Growing up in Britain’s Poor in Neighbourhoods, →ISBN:",
"text": "Because benefit dependence was understood to confine people to poverty ('bend the rules - you've got to in this world cause of the pittance you get off the government') and because doing fiddly work indicated a commitment to self-reliance ('at least they're working') it was widely condoned.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Justin Cruickshank, Realism and Sociology, →ISBN:",
"text": "The other mjinority group has, by being members of the appropriate social networks, access to fiddly jobs.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Richard K. Brown, The Changing Shape of Work, →ISBN, page 117:",
"text": "None of the normal conditions of employment (for example health and safety regulations, training, sickness benefits, etc.) were afforded to fiddly workers and when some suffered industrial injuries (at the steel works) no compensation was forthcoming.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Pertaining to occasional under-the-table work by people who receive unemployment benefits"
],
"links": [
[
"occasional",
"occasional"
],
[
"under-the-table",
"under-the-table"
],
[
"unemployment benefit",
"unemployment benefit"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈfɪdli/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɪdli"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "laborioso"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "macchinoso"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "requiring dexterity",
"word": "complicato"
}
],
"word": "fiddly"
}
Download raw JSONL data for fiddly meaning in English (4.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). 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.
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