Word.ws English Dictionary

niggled

niggled is the simple past and past participle of niggle.

Meaning of niggle

Verb

niggle (third-person singular simple present niggles, present participle niggling, simple past and past participle niggled)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To trifle with; to deceive; to mock.
    • I shall so feed your fierce vexation , And raise your worship ' s storms ; I shall so niggle you , And juggle you , and fiddle you , and firk youc. 1621, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Pilgrim”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the...
  2. (transitive) To use, spend, or do in a petty or trifling manner.
  3. (intransitive) To dwell too much on minor points or on trifling details.
  4. (UK, intransitive) To fidget, fiddle, be restless.
  5. (UK, archaic, dialectal, intransitive) To walk with short steps.
    • I can see him now with his one eye closed as he came niggling along, and didn't he just give me a grandfather's blessing!1893, Fores's Sporting Notes & Sketches, page 177

See all 7 meanings of niggle

Questions about niggled

What is niggled the simple past and past participle of?
Niggled is the simple past and past participle of niggle.

Words near niggled in the dictionary

  1. niggie
  2. niggies
  3. nigging
  4. niggish
  5. niggle
  6. niggled
  7. niggler
  8. nigglers
  9. niggles
  10. nigglesome
  11. nigglet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: niggled (page history and authors); niggle (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: “niggled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/niggled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.