1. intr. a. To discourse in a trifling way.
1567. Edwards, Damon & Pithias, in Hazl., Dodsley, IV. 81. Set out your bussing base, and we will quiddle upon it.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1275/2. Which name of the Marishes, Marshes, or Moores, if it like them to expound it, as I doubt not but manie will quiddle therevpon.
1863–70. [see QUIDDLING].
b. To trifle, waste time (with).
1832. in Webster.
a. 1877. in J. Cook, Orthodoxy, iv. (1882), 81. Don’t quiddle with the goody little notes to Gibbon by Milman and others.
† 2. trans. To trifle or play with. Obs.
a. 1652. Brome, City Wit, III. i. Wks. 1873, I. 311. Cras. How does she feel your hand? Lin. O, she does so quiddle it, shake it, and gripe it!
Hence Quiddling vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Quiddler, a trifler.
1832. in Webster.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, iv. (1861), 92. Neither will we be driven into a quiddling abstemiousness, ’Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, vii. 181. Lawyers, bound by quiddling technicalities.
1870. H. Stevens, Bibl. Histor., Introd. 14. He indulged in … bibliographical quiddling about the mechanical and manufacturing points of the books.
