niddering
Syllables: nid·der·ingUK/ˈnɪdəɹɪŋ/
niddering noun: synonym of nithing (“a coward, a dastard; a wretch”).
Noun
niddering (plural nidderings)
- Synonym of nithing (“a coward, a dastard; a wretch”).
- ‘Now will I have at thee as a base kern and niddering,’ roared the knight.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 57
- [O]n the bodies of his fallen foes he kicked the gray road dust, and spat on them and named them churls and nidderings and unfit wearers of the mail of men of war.1948, Seabury Quinn, “The Road to Bethlehem”, in Roads, Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, →OCLC, page 26; reprinted Mohegan Lake, N.Y.: Red Jacket Press, 2005, →ISBN, page 26
- Synonyms:
- nithing
Adjective
niddering (comparative more niddering, superlative most niddering)
- Synonym of nithing (“cowardly, dastardly; notoriously evil or wicked; infamous”).
- I require of thee, as a man of thy word, on pain of being held faithless, man-sworn, and nidering [footnote: Infamous], to forgive and to receive to thy paternal affection the good knight, Wilfrid of Ivanhoe.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page...
- Though thou art my son, I say this, that, if thou workest ill to Eric when he is over sea, thou shalt rightly learn the weight of Whitefire: it is a niddering deed to plot against an absent man.1891, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “How Eric was Outlawed and Sailed A-viking”, in Eric Brighteyes, 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 121
Synonyms of niddering
Forms of niddering
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nidderings |
| alternative form | nidering |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more niddering |
| superlative | most niddering |
Origin of niddering
A variant of nithing, resulting from the letter eth (ð) in Early Middle English niðing in the writings of the English historian William of Malmesbury (c. 1095 – c. 1143) being mistaken for a d followed by a mark of suspension representing a letter that had been omitted as an abbreviation. This led to niðing being wrongly spelled as nidering in early printed versions of his works. The word was later popularized by the Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).
Questions about niddering
- What does niddering mean?
- Niddering means synonym of nithing (“a coward, a dastard; a wretch”).
- What part of speech is niddering?
- Niddering can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce niddering?
- Niddering is pronounced /ˈnɪdəɹɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of niddering?
- The plural of niddering is nidderings.
Words near niddering in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: niddering (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: “niddering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/niddering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.