Word.ws English Dictionary

diddle

/ˈdɪ.dəl/UK/ˈdɪdəl/

diddle noun: in percussion, two consecutive notes played by the same hand (either RR or LL), similar to the drag, except that by convention diddles are played the same speed as the context in which they are placed.

Noun

diddle (countable and uncountable, plural diddles)

  1. (countable) In percussion, two consecutive notes played by the same hand (either RR or LL), similar to the drag, except that by convention diddles are played the same speed as the context in which they are placed.
  2. (childish, countable, slang) The penis.
    • Paul was the first one to unzip his pants, take out his diddle, and make himself ready to pee on the wire.2011, L. R. Baker, Wingnut: Operation Payback, page 104
  3. (slang, uncountable) Gin (the drink).
    • […] a long, wooden porch good for listening to coyotes and owls, with a glass of diddle at hand.2008, William Least Heat-Moon, Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey

Verb

diddle (third-person singular simple present diddles, present participle diddling, simple past and past participle diddled)

  1. (slang, transitive) To cheat; to swindle.
    • 'No one ever got rich being honest,' the father said. 'Customers are there to be diddled.'1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda
  2. (slang, transitive) To molest.
  3. (slang, transitive) To masturbate.
    Synonyms:
    beat off
  4. (transitive) To waste time.
    Synonyms:
    dick around
  5. (intransitive) To totter, like a child learning to walk; to daddle.
    • And, when his forward strength began to bloom, / To see him diddle up and down the Room!1632, Frances Quarles, Divine Fancies
  6. (slang, transitive) To manipulate a value at the level of individual bits (binary digits).

Interjection

  1. A meaningless word used when singing a tune or indicating a rhythm.
    • What's that tune that goes "diddle di-dum, diddle di-dum, diddle di-dum-dum"?

Proper noun capitalized: Diddle

Diddle

  1. A surname.

diddle meaning in Tamil and Urdu

diddle in Tamil

செய்திக் குலைப்பு

diddle in Urdu

غبن کرنا, ورغلانا

Examples of diddle in a sentence

  • Took a screamer first quarter, then left foot banana through the hey diddle diddle.
  • So I diddled around, then came down with the money, and we were finally ready to roll.
  • The Purdie shuffles below use diddles with ghost notes.

All 11 example sentences with diddle

Synonyms of diddle

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of diddle

Forms of diddle

Noun
pluraldiddles
Verb
third-person singular presentdiddles
present participlediddling
past participlediddled
pastdiddled

Origin of diddle

From dialectal duddle (“to trick”) (16th century), and diddle, duddle (“to totter”) (17th century), perhaps dissimilated from dialectal didder, dither (“to shake, tremble”), from Middle English dideren (“to shake, quiver, tremble”) and Middle English bididren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to trick, deceive”). Compare also Saterland Frisian diedelje (“to play or sing without a melody”), Dutch bedodden, bedotten (“to trick, fool, diddle”), German Low German Diedeldentjes (“pranks, pranking”). Possibly influenced or reinforced by the name (which itself was probably chosen as an allusion to duddle) of the swindling character Jeremy Diddler in Kenney's Raising the Wind (1803). Meanings "to have sex with" and "to molest" are from the 19th century; "to masturbate" is from the 1950s. Compare dildo.

Words formed from diddle

Phrases with diddle

Words that rhyme with diddle

Questions about diddle

What does diddle mean?
Diddle means in percussion, two consecutive notes played by the same hand (either RR or LL), similar to the drag, except that by convention diddles are played the same speed as the context in which they are placed.
What is diddle in Tamil?
Diddle in Tamil is செய்திக் குலைப்பு. See Diddle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is diddle?
Diddle can be a noun, a verb, an interjection or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce diddle?
Diddle is pronounced /ˈdɪdəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of diddle?
The plural of diddle is diddles.

Words near diddle in the dictionary

  1. diddiest
  2. diddikai
  3. diddikais
  4. diddikoi
  5. diddikois
  6. diddle
  7. diddle for middle
  8. diddle-daddle
  9. diddle-daddled
  10. diddle-daddles
  11. diddle-daddling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: diddle (page history and authors); Diddle (page history and authors); diddle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); diddle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-diddle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “diddle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/diddle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.