▪ I. taradiddle, tarradiddle, n. slang or colloq.
(ˌtærəˈdɪd(ə)l; main stress shifting)
Also 9 tarri-, tally-.
[cf. diddle v.3 2, n.2: the first element is obscure: cf. tara int.1]
A trifling falsehood, a petty lie; a colloquial euphemism for a lie; a ‘fib’.
| 1796 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Taradiddle, a fib, or falsity. 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. xliv, Telling a tarradiddle or two. 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xlvii, Oh, don't call them lies, sister; it's such a strong, ugly word. Please call them tallydiddles, for I don't believe she meant any harm. 1882 J. Payn Thicker than Water i, Our widow paid..the compliment of telling a ‘tarradiddle’ or white lie. 1885 Huxley Let. 23 Feb. in Life (1900) II. 97 Everybody told us it would be very cold, and, as usual, everybody told taradiddles. |
Add: b. Pretentious or empty talk; senseless, unproductive activity; nonsense, = twaddle n. 1 a.
| 1970 N. Bawden Birds on Trees ix. 152 You take things easier as you get older, less fuss and tarradiddle. 1976 Economist 12 June 51/1 There is much taradiddle in the City about the Bank's moral obligation to make restitution. Taradiddle it is. 1984 Listener 5 Jan. 18/1 There is a silly middle-class snobbery about muesli, wheatgerm, pulses and all that Posy Simmonds health-food taradiddle. 1990 Daily Tel. 13 Mar. 20/6 As for those MPs who had been telling Sunday newspapers that they thought Mrs Thatcher ought to retire before the next election, that was ‘absolute taradiddle’. |
▪ II. ˌtaraˈdiddle, tarradiddle, v. slang or colloq.
[f. prec.]
a. intr. To tell taradiddles or fibs. b. trans. To impose upon, or bring into some condition, by telling fibs. Hence ˌtaraˈdiddler, one who taradiddles, a petty liar.
| 1828 Examiner 658/1 His enemies..squibbed, and paragraphed, and taradiddled him to death. 1847–78 Halliwell, Tarra-diddled, imposed upon, generally by lies. 1880 Society 29 Oct., Perhaps there is not a more facile..tarradiddler than the London correspondent of the provincial newspaper. 1909 Athenæum 6 Mar. 281/1 A barefaced tarradiddler or a prophet. |