diddle – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to diddle
Participle: diddled
Gerund: diddling

Cognates

See the 2 cognates of diddle

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	diddle
we	Let's diddle
you	diddle

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

have sex with

hit, plough, plug, rock, shelve, slay, copulate with

to waste time

dally, piddle, loiter

waste time

footle, loiter

cheat|swindle

deceive

delay

lag, tarry, dawdle, trail, loiter, linger, remain

Antonyms

delay

hasten, speed, expedite, dispatch

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. "to cheat, swindle," 1806, from dial. duddle, diddle "to totter" (1632). Meaning "waste time" is recorded from 1825. Meaning "to have sex with" is from 1879; that of "to masturbate" (especially of women) is from 1950s. More or less unrelated meanings that have gathered around a suggestive sound.
2. From dialectal duddle (“to trick”) (16th century), and diddle, duddle (“to totter”) (17th century), perhaps dissimilated from dialectal didder, dither (“to shake, tremble”), from Middle English dideren (“to shake, quiver, tremble”) and Middle English bididren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to trick, deceive”). Compare also Saterland Frisian diedelje (“to play or sing without a melody”), Dutch bedodden, bedotten (“to trick, fool, diddle”), German Low German Diedeldentjes (“pranks, pranking”). Possibly influenced or reinforced by the name (which itself was probably chosen as an allusion to duddle) of the swindling character Jeremy Diddler in Kenney's Raising the Wind (1803).
3. Meanings "to have sex with" and "to molest" are from the 19th century; "to masturbate" is from the 1950s. Compare dildo. See: Frisian, Saterlandic 'diedelje', Dutch 'bedodden'.

Sample Sentences