[‘ /intr./ To discourse or expound upon a subject in a trifling or frivolous manner./Obs./']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈkwɪdl/, U.S. /ˈkwɪd(ə)l/
Forms: 15 *quiddell*, 15– *quiddle*.
Etymology:Origin uncertain, perhaps an expressive formation; compare -le suffix 3, and also earlier twiddle v.1, fiddle v. 3, piddle v., etc. With sense 3 compare earlier quibble v.1
Now rare (chiefly U.S./ /regional (New England)).
†*1.* /intr./ To discourse or expound upon a subject in a trifling or frivolous manner./Obs./
In quot. /a/1566 perh.: to sing an improvised descant above a tune or theme.
/a/1566 R. Edwards /Damon & Pithias/ (1571) sig. Fivv, Set out your bussyng base, and wee wyll quiddell vpon it.
1587 A. Fleming et al. /Holinshed’s Chron./ (new ed.) III. Contin. 1275/2 Which name of the Marishes, Marshes, or Moores, if it like them to expound it, as I doubt not but manie will quiddle therevpon.
*2.* /trans./ To fiddle or play about with.
a/1652 R. Brome /City Wit/ iii. i. sig. C4, in /Five New Playes/ (1653), /Cras. How does she feel your hand? Lin. O, she does so quiddle it, shake it, and gripe it!
1696 M. Pix /Spanish Wives/ ii. 14 What! have a Surgeon quiddling her white Arm, and looking Babies in her Eyes!
1779 ‘Peeping Tim’ /Honest London Spy/ ii. iii. 58 After an hour and a half’s unnecessary quiddling her ornaments, he could perceive no..alteration for the better.
1854 J. S. H. Pardoe /Reginald Lyle/ iii. 82 Now don’t sit quiddling the string of your cap, but listen to me attentively.
1981 G. Davenport /Eclogues/ 161 It made Victor, who was quiddling his foreskin while sipping his coffee, look at me cross-eyed.
*3.* /intr./ To quibble or cavil about insignificant details; to fuss; (also) to busy oneself with unimportant matters or trivial tasks; to fritter away time.
1789 F. Ames /Let./ 8 July in /Wks./ (1854) I. 61 We correct spelling, or erase may and insert shall, and quiddle in a manner which provokes me.
1829 /Virginia Lit. Museum/ 30 Dec. 460 To quiddle. ‘To busy one’s self about trifles.’ The word is used as a substantive.
1856 /Punch/ Feb. 50/1 Don’t be led away to quirk and quiddle with negotiations.
1871 L. M. Alcott /Little Men/ ii. 22 Daisy..liked to quiddle about the china-closet, prepare the salt-cellars, put the spoons straight on the table.
1898 ‘M. Grey’ /Ribstone Pippins/ 40 A quiddles over his cloase.
a/1903 H. Kingsford in /Eng. Dial. Dict./ (1903) IV. 681/2 /S. Worcester They others keeps a quiddling at it.
1970 /N.Y. Times/ 17 May 8/7, I drove my Jeep to a lonely beach and there amidst other jetsam prepared to quiddle away an hour at fishing for striped bass.
2000 in /Dict. Amer. Regional Eng./ (2002) IV. 415/1 Quiddle—‘to busy oneself with unimportant things’. A student heard it from an aunt in Connecticut and another heard it she thinks from friends in Maine ‘just quiddling around’.
Derivatives
†quiddler n. /Obs./
1832 Webster /Dict. Eng. Lang./ (at cited word), Quiddler.
1842–4 H. D. Thoreau /Jrnl./ (1984) II. 77 Drummond was indeed a quiddler—with little fire or fibre—and rather a taste for poetry than a taste of it.
1871 N. Nutgall /Raven Club Papers/ 41 It is perfectly maddening to realise what a lot of pre-eminent quiddlers we are. Never was there a people so imposingly great for the absolute magnitude of its littleness.