diddle

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. verb deprive of by deceit
  2. verb manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination

Etymology

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). Meanings "to have sex with" and "to molest" are from the 19th century, the latter reinforced by the name of rapper P. Diddy; "to masturbate" is from the 1950s. Compare dildo.

In classic literature

Synonyms

victimize, swindle, rook, goldbrick, nobble, bunco, defraud, scam, mulct, gyp, gip, hornswoggle, short-change, con

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