English

Verb

twiddle ‎(third-person singular simple present twiddles, present participle twiddling, simple past and past participle twiddled)

1. (transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Singing,”

     The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.

   She sat and nervously twiddled her hair while she waited.

2. (transitive, computing) To flip or switch two adjacent bits.
3. (transitive, mathematics) To be in an equivalence relation with.
4. (intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles^[1].

Derived terms

• twiddle one's thumbs
• twiddler

Translations

1. ↑ James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Vol. 2, 1847/1855

Noun

twiddle ‎(plural twiddles)

1. A slight twist with the fingers.
2. (Britain, dialect) A pimple.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)