Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To turn over or around idly or lightly; fiddle with.
- intransitive verb To trifle with something.
- intransitive verb To be busy about trifles.
- intransitive verb To twirl or rotate without purpose.
- noun The act or an instance of twiddling.
- idiom (twiddle (one's) thumbs) To do little or nothing; be idle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A slight twirl with the fingers.
- noun A pimple.
- To twirl idly; hence, to fiddle or play with.
- To move or propel by repeated light touches.
- To twirl; revolve.
- To play or trifle with something, as by touching or handling; toy.
- To be busy about trifles; quiddle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To touch lightly, or play with; to tweedle; to twirl
- intransitive verb To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles.
- noun A slight twist with the fingers.
- noun Prov. Eng. A pimple.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
wiggle ,fidget or play with; to move around. - verb transitive, computing To
flip orswitch twoadjacent bits . - verb transitive, mathematics To be in an
equivalence relation with. - noun A slight
twist with thefingers . - noun UK, dialect A
pimple .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb turn in a twisting or spinning motion
- noun a series of small (usually idle) twists or turns
- verb manipulate, as in a nervous or unconscious manner
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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On the back of the trim display are two adjusting screws (difficult to see but one is coloured blue) Which one do I 'twiddle' to make the adjustment.
YBW News 2009
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~ = tilde (aka "twiddle") ` = backtick what else do we have here ...
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If the power goes out, how many of us sit at work and twiddle our thumbs because we need the computer?
The Ease of Automated Answering Systems « Colleen Anderson 2010
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You could be forgiven for thinking that all we need to do to get better care and lower costs is twiddle our thumbs and wait for all of federal reform to kick in.
Larry McNeely: In The Public Interest : Why Is California So Important in Health Care Reform? Larry McNeely 2010
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I am in such a twiddle about how I do it, that reading this post has sort of calmed me down.
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Perhaps not much, but one thing he didn't learn at Bain Capital was to twiddle his thumbs because taking action might make somebody mad at him.
The Truth About Bain and Jobs Jr. Holman W. Jenkins 2012
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You could be forgiven for thinking that all we need to do to get better care and lower costs is twiddle our thumbs and wait for all of federal reform to kick in.
Mike Russo: In the Public Interest: Why Is California So Important in Health Care Reform? Mike Russo 2010
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You could be forgiven for thinking that all we need to do to get better care and lower costs is twiddle our thumbs and wait for all of federal reform to kick in.
Mike Russo: In the Public Interest : Why Is California So Important in Health Care Reform? Mike Russo 2010
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You could be forgiven for thinking that all we need to do to get better care and lower costs is twiddle our thumbs and wait for all of federal reform to kick in.
Larry McNeely: In The Public Interest : Why Is California So Important in Health Care Reform? Larry McNeely 2010
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Review for inFAMOUS, E3 predictions and we twiddle our thumbs.
Bleep Bleep, Bloop Bloop. Video Games. « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2009
hernesheir commented on the word twiddle
A pimple. - old term from Suffolk recorded by Grose in his 1787 Provincial Glossary.
May 3, 2011