Noun
The playing of music on a fiddle.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The act of fidgeting.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Tweaking; manipulation.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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[W]e, her doctors […] seemed powerless to prevent [side-effects], despite all our reassurances, and all our fiddlings and manipulations with the dosage[…]
More examples (1)
Was it deliberate that the first week of October 1961 was chosen to conduct a national survey of passenger usage? Why October of all months, when the holiday season was over and families back at work and at school? Was this a fiddling of the figures to make an unfair case against rail-dependent resorts such as those in the West Country, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, where previously overloaded summer services would now only have a handful of locals on board?
Adjective
Of petty or trivial importance; footling
- Examples
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It was a fiddling little fault, but ultimately proved disastrous.
Adjective
(informal) small and of little importance
- Examples
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a fiddling sum of money
a footling gesture
More examples (6)
our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war
a little (or small) matter
a dispute over niggling details
limited to petty enterprises
piffling efforts
giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction