| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈtiddler1
[? Related to tittlebat and tiddly ‘little’.]
Nursery name for a stickleback. Also applied to other small fish, as a minnow. Hence, a child; any small person or thing. So ˈtiddling vbl. n., fishing for ‘tiddlers’.
1885B. E. Martin in Harper's Mag. May 866/1 Them's tiddlers, they is. 1903Blackw. Mag. Aug. 203/2, I used to come and catch tiddlers in it when I was a kid. 1908Daily Chron. 3 Aug. 7/3 Within reach of that most delightful tiddling water in St. James's Park. 1911Daily News 26 July 4 The long row of boys..in St. James's Park fishing for tiddlers with sticks and bent pins. 1927R. Lehmann Dusty Answer iv. 294, I remember you hated lightning when you were a tiddler. 1937G. Frankau More of Us vi. 69 When father's under par, Mother suggests a tiddler at the bar. 1966F. Shaw et al. Lern yerself Scouse 33 Tiddler, silver threepenny piece. 1971Daily Mail 18 Feb. 5/6 They will scrap the ½p coin—the ‘tiddler’—when they change to decimals. 1976Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 26 Aug. 9/6 Pastime anglers would not be allowed to keep ‘tiddlers’. 1980E. Blishen Nest of Teachers i. viii. 43 A couple of days with Class 1A and..he will know a deuce of a lot..about the little tiddlers.
▪ II. tiddler2 slang.
[f. tiddle, by-form of tittle v. to tickle.]
A feather or feather-brush for tickling; a ‘teaser’ or ‘tormenter’; a tickler.
1900Daily Chron. 21 May 5 (Cass. Supp.) In Cheapside..you were titillated by ‘penny tiddlers’. Anything, from a peacock's feather downwards, which is a foot long and tickles, is a ‘tiddler’. a1904E. Smith MS. Coll. Warwicksh. Wds. s.v. (E.D.D.), At ‘mops’ and fairs in the Midlands the favourite tiddler..drawn rapidly down the back,..made a noise resembling that of the extinct ‘rattle’ of the policeman. Now the tiddler has degenerated into any light weapon of offence, which drawn across the face or neck, irritates the skin.
▪ III. ˈtiddler3 U.S. colloq.
[f. tiddlywink + -er1.]
A tiddlywinks player.
1958N.Y. Times 9 May 28 An Oxford University tiddler..says there's a 100-year-old controversy over proper spelling of the sport. 1962Boston Globe 14 Oct. 81 The Crimson tiddlers winked their way to a 23 to 12 victory over a green Purple team. |