subs. (nursery).—LANT (q.v.). Also as verb. = RACK OFF (q.v.); STROAN (q.v.).—GROSE (1785).

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  2.  (common).—To do languidly or to little purpose; TO NIGGLE (q.v.). Hence, PIDDLER = a trifler; and PIDDLING = mean, of small account, squeamish.—GROSE (1785).

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  1544.  ASCHAM, Toxophilus [ARBER], 117. And so … auoyde bothe greate trouble, and also some cost whiche you cunnynge archers very often put your selues vnto … neuer ceasynge PIDDELYNGE about your bowe and shaftes when they be well, but eyther with … newe fetheryng.

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  c. 1622.  MIDDLETON, The Mayor of Quinborough (1661), v. 1. Nine geese, and some three larks for PIDDLING meat.

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  1629.  MASSINGER, The Picture, iii. 6.

          Soph.   … My lord
Hath gotten a new mistress.
  Ubald.  One! a hundred….
They talk of Hercules’ fifty in a night,
’Twas well; but yet to yours he was a PIDDLER.

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  1632.  SHIRLEY, The Changes, ii. 2. Let children, when they versify, stick here and there these PIDDLING words for want of matter. Poets write masculine numbers.

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  1690.  CROWNE, The English Friar, ii. He has a weak stomach and cant make a meal, unless he has a dozen pretty dishes to PIDDLE upon.

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  1733.  POPE, Imitations of Horace, II. ii. 137.

        Content with little, I can PIDDLE here
On brocoli and mutton round the year.

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  1723.  SWIFT, Stella at Wood-Park.

        From stomach sharp, and hearty feeding,
To PIDDLE like a lady breeding.

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  d. 1774.  GOLDSMITH, Criticisms [Century]. A PIDDLING reader … might object to almost all the rhymes of the above quotation.

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  1902.  W. E. HENLEY, Views and Reviews, II. 10. Though the Castle of Otranto is a PIDDLING piece of super-nature.

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