tiddly1
/ˈtɪdli
/adjective (tiddlier, tiddliest) British informal
Slightly drunk: we were all a little bit tiddly...
- Oddly enough I found my hotel quite easily last night whilst slightly tiddly, but then got completely lost this morning.
- Slightly tiddly, I mentioned my Neil Diamond thing.
- I came in at 11.30, off the last bus, having been in the pub since I finished work at 4, so slightly tiddly.
Origin
Mid 19th century (as a noun denoting an alcoholic drink, particularly of spirits): perhaps from slang tiddlywink, denoting an unlicensed public house. The current sense dates from the early 20th century.
Rhymes
tiddly2
/ˈtɪdli/adjective (tiddlier, tiddliest) British informal
Little; tiny: a tiddly little pool...
- It had taken 12 years to complete, yet contained a comparatively tiddly 55,000 biographies.
- A decade on, that tiddly quarter-page diagram remains the only technical bit of the magazine.
- ‘You're not seriously expecting me to photograph you with that tiddly chubby carp’ she said.
Origin
Mid 19th century: variant of colloquial tiddy, of unknown origin.