▪ I. fiddle-faddle, n., a. and int.
(ˈfɪd(ə)lˈfæd(ə)l)
[This and the vb. are reduplications of fiddle or faddle; cf. Ger. fickfack, and contemptuous formations like flim-flam, skimble-skamble, etc.]
A. n.
1. Trifling talk or action; in pl. trivial matters, trifling occupations or objects of attention.
| 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades 103 This more then neding fiddle faddle smacks somwhat of ambition. 1592 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. 1884 II. 98 Away with these paultringe fidle-fadles. 1684 tr. Agrippa's Van. Arts xxx. 86 The Fiddle-faddles and Trifles of Mathematicians. a 1734 North Exam. ii. v. §141 (1740) 403 Come leave your Fiddlefaddles of Presumptions. c 1760 in Macaulay Ess. Pitt (1854) 308/2 No more they make a fiddle-faddle About a Hessian horse or saddle. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 8 July, The fiddle-faddle of arranging all the things was troublesome. 1849 Darwin Life & Lett. (1887) I. 377 Describing species of birds and shells, &c., is all fiddle-faddle. 1861 T. L. Peacock Gryll Gr. 103 Where you just look on fiddlefaddles while your dinner is behind a screen. 1887 Jessopp Arcady iv. 134 Collecting cards..and all the petty fiddlefaddle that is growing so stale. |
2. An idler, trifler; a gossip, chatterbox.
| 1602 Breton Merry Wonders, Maid Marian in a Morrice⁓daunce, would put her down for a Fiddle-faddle. 1756 Mrs. Delany Let. to Mrs. Dewes, Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Gosling, and two or three fiddle faddles. 1824 Westm. Rev. II. 337 Your true fiddle-faddle Somebody, who would be in high repute among his fellows. 1888 Berksh. Gloss. s.v., A ‘viddle vaddle or viddle vaddler’. |
B. adj. Trifling, petty, fussy: said of persons as well as of things.
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely 298 A great deale more of such fiddle-faddle stuffe. 1727 De Foe Protest. Monast. 16 In any other fiddle faddle part of Life. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull in Arb. Garner (1883) VI. 603 They [liverymen] said, ‘She was a troublesome fiddle faddle old woman!’ 1834 Beckford Italy II. 164 So fiddle-faddle and so coquettish. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 69 The fiddle-faddle etiquette of the Court. |
C. int. Nonsense! Bosh!
| 1671 Shadwell Humorists v, Fiddle faddle on your Travelling and University. 1705 Vanbrugh Confed. ii. i, Fiddle, faddle; han't I wit enough already? 1779 F. Burney Diary 11 Jan., Dr. Johnson: Pho! fiddle-faddle; do you suppose your book is so much talked of and not yourself? 1876 F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow III. xv. 191 Oh, fiddle-faddle, my lord! |
▪ II. fiddle-faddle, v.
(ˈfɪd(ə)lfæd(ə)l)
[See the n.]
intr. To be busy about petty trifles; to fuss, ‘mess about’.
| 1633 Ford Broken H. i. iii, Ye may as easily Outrun a cloud driven by the northern blast As fiddle faddle so. 1776 Mrs. Delany Lett. Ser. ii. II. 202 Had you been bred up only to fiddle faddle, you would have fiddle faddled all your life. 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 226 She has..fiddle-faddled about the garden, picking off half-a-dozen dead roses. |
Hence fiddle-faddling vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also fiddle-faddler.
| 1834 T. Medwin Angler Wales I. Pref. ix, But lest I should chance to be considered here one of the tribe of that fiddle-fadling, dull old prosing pedant. 1846 Worcester (citing Qu. Rev.), Fiddle-faddler, a foolish trifler. 1850 Clough Poems and Pr. Rem. (1869) I. 168 Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it without fiddle-faddling. 1861 M. E. Braddon Lady Lisle (1885) 36, I don't want him to be a fiddle-faddling girl. 1882 Society 14 Oct. 11/2 The mistaken notion..that detail is a substitute for spirit and fiddle-faddling for acting. |