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faddle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
faddle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
faddle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
faddle you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Compare fiddle, fiddle-faddle.
Verb
faddle (third-person singular simple present faddles, present participle faddling, simple past and past participle faddled)
- To fiddle (play aimlessly).
- Synonym: fiddle
1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, quoting an anonymous reviewer in the Allahabad Pioneer, June 27, 1878, “Our Lady of the Snows – The Boarders”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, page 99:I am afraid I must be at bottom, what a cheerful Indian critic has dubbed me, "a faddling hedonist" […]
1906, The Building News and Engineering Journal, volume 91, page 896:He faddles over the needless, such as hanging maps up on the walls in the section and putting inkpots on the mantelpiece.
2017, M.J. Trow, chapter 11, in The Island:I had that awful woman, Celia Thaxter, sitting next to me, boring me to death with what a marvellous writer Mark Twain was […] I said, "look, dear, he's sitting just over there. Why don't you go and talk to him?" She faddled around, blushing like a schoolgirl and saying she couldn't possibly.
- (UK, dated) To dote on.
1893, Sebastian Kneipp, My Water-cure Tested for Than 35 Years and Published for the Cure of Diseases and the Preservation of Health, page 26:Even then, when nurse is ready to take baby out for a walk, properly wrapped up, faddling Mamma comes to examine, if not a little corner remains to be closed to the air.
1950, Cecil Woodham-Smith, quoting Mary Elizabeth Mohl, Florence Nightingale 1820-1910, page 435:“The last year she spent faddling at Aunt Mai's […] I am not sure this is necessary to her happiness, this faddling after other people. Now, to faddle after folk, who don't want you, is madness . . . but to faddle after those that do is very good employment. Now […] you are the very person for her, for she dotes on you […] ”
1974, Sydney John Watson, The Cottage Countess: An Historical Romance, page 44:She was doing no good in church all put about and faddling after Blackie.