toodle, v. ? dial.
(ˈtuːd(ə)l)
[In sense 1 echoic (cf. teedle, tootle).]
1. intr. To hum or sing in a low tone (as to a baby).
| 1865 W. G. Wills D. Chantrey xxxii. III. 140 She shall have the toodling and the cooing and a sequestered spot, and be spared these foolish accessions of nerves. |
2. See quot 1904. [perh. a different word.]
| 1890 A. Lang Sir S. Northcote I. i. 11 In winter [at Eton] they ‘toodled’. 1904 J. A. Thomson Eighty Years' Reminiscences I. i. 19 [At Eton in 1832] One of our great amusements in winter was toodling—hunting birds in the hedges and chasing them till they were blown, when we captured them. |
So ˈtoodle-ˈloodle; † toodle-toodle [cf. Ger. dudeldudel], an imitation of the sound of a pipe or flute; toodle-pipe, a pipe making such a sound.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 223 b, His instrumente wheron to plaie toodle loodle bagpipe. a 1553 ― Royster D. ii. i. (Arb.) 32 Then to our recorder with toodleloodle poope As the howlet out of an yuie bushe should hoope. a 1566 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1571) F iv b, Wyll singes, Too nidden, and toodle toodle doo nidden. Ibid. G j, Todle todle. 1890 Doyle White Company xviii, A Scotch army, where every man fills himself with girdle-cakes, and sits up all night to blow upon the toodle-pipe. |