Word.ws English Dictionary

hey diddle diddle

hey diddle diddle noun: the middle.

Noun

hey diddle diddle (plural not attested)

  1. (Australia, UK, no plural, slang) The middle.
    • "That's my cousin Reggie," said Wallaby Jack. "He's only a little feller, but he can play footy. Took a screamer first quarter, then left foot banana through the hey diddle diddle. Six big ones."2018 November 22, Thomas Faunce, Split By Sun: The Tragic History Of The Sustainocene, World Scientific Publishing, →ISBN, page 315
    • The celebrity long-drive event took place on the ninth hole of the West Course, which was won by Spiderman^([sic]) actor Tom Holland. Holland looked like he meant business when he ripped his drive 310 yards straight down the hey diddle diddle.2023 November 1, Ben Smith, “Watch: Long drive bloopers from BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am”, in GolfMagic, retrieved 13 May 2025

Origin of hey diddle diddle

Rhyming slang referencing the namesake nursery rhyme. Phrase first attested in Thomas Preston's Cambyses, king of Persia (1569).

Questions about hey diddle diddle

What does hey diddle diddle mean?
Hey diddle diddle means the middle.
What part of speech is hey diddle diddle?
Hey diddle diddle is a noun.

Words near hey diddle diddle in the dictionary

  1. hexynoates
  2. hexynoic acid
  3. hexynoic acids
  4. hexynyl
  5. hey
  6. hey diddle diddle
  7. hey hey
  8. hey ho
  9. hey Joe
  10. hey mister
  11. hey pass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hey diddle diddle (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.

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