Standard Lemma guide

piddling

adj · verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈpɪdəlɪŋ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P IH1 D AH0 L IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: P IH1 D L IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Insignificant, negligible, paltry, trivial, useless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Examples

  • After all the work I'd done, he gave me a piddling amount of money.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, like a fart in a windstorm, meager, mean, minor, miserable, negligible, nothingburger, nondescript, null, paltry, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piddly, pissant, pissass, piteous, pitiful, pointless, silly, simple, slight, ticky-tacky, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, unweighty, vain, worthless, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

present participle and gerund of piddle

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, gerund, participle, present

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

(informal) small and of little importance

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a fiddling sum of money
  • a footling gesture
  • our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war
  • a little (or small) matter
  • a dispute over niggling details
  • limited to petty enterprises
  • piffling efforts
  • giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piffling, petty, picayune, trivial

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Czech: nicotný — insignificant
  • Czech: bezvýznamný — insignificant
  • Czech: malicherný — insignificant