▪ I. tiffle, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈtɪf(ə)l)
Forms: 4 tifle, 5 tiffel, tyffle, 6 tyf(f)ell, 9 tiffle.
[Dim. or freq. of tiff v.1]
† 1. trans. To dress up, adorn, deck or trick out (in a trifling or time-wasting way). Obs.
| 1388 Wyclif Ecclus. xxxii. 15 In the our of risyng, tifle [1382 tyff] thee not. Margin, That is, make thee no tariyng in araiyng, ether tiflyng of heeris, as wymmen doon. |
2. intr. To busy oneself idly, ‘fiddle’, trifle; to potter about. Now dial.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 493/2 Tyfflynge, or vnprofytabylle werkynge (S.,A.,P. tyffynge). 1530 Palsgr. 758/1, I tyfell with my fyngers, or busye my selfe longe aboute a thyng.., je tiffe. You have spente two houres to tyffell about this thyng. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tiffle, to be mightily busy about little or nothing. |
Hence ˈtiffler, one who ‘tiffles’; in quot. app. one who dresses up; in mod. dial. a trifler, idler.
| c 1400 Plowman's T. 195 But Antichrist they serven clene, Attyred all in tyrannye;..Tiffelers attyred in trecherye. |
▪ II. tiffle, tifle, v.2 Chiefly dial.
(ˈtɪf(ə)l)
[app. onomatopœic.]
trans. To disorder, disarrange, entangle, ravel; tiffle out, to ravel out.
| 1811 Willan Words W. Riding in Archæol. (1814) XVII. 161 Tifle, v. to entangle, to mix and knot threads together. 1815 Monthly Mag. 1 Mar. 125/1 Essex Dialect, Tiffle, to disarrange. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Tifle, tyfell, to entangle,..to ruffle. 1880 Plain Hints Needlework 121 Tifflings..is used in some parts to describe the ravellings or threads. ‘To tiffle out’, to ravel out or unweave. |