Pples. fidgeted, -eting (often incorrectly with double t). [f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To make movements indicative of impatience, restlessness, or uneasiness; to move restlessly to and fro. Also, to fidget about.
1754. [see FIDGETING ppl. a.].
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., IV. iv. (1849), 217. The governor snapping his fingers and fidgeting with delight.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, iii. 18. Davison fidgeted about in his chair.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, i. Joe, who had been fidgeting in his chair with divers uneasy gestures.
1858. R. S. Surtees, ‘Ask Mamma,’ xxxiii. 138. The Major, who for the last few minutes has been fidgetting about pairing parties off according to a written programme he has in his waistcoat pocket.
1867. J. Hatton, Tallants of Barton, xviii. The chairman fidgetted uneasily in his seat: sundry anonymous letters making grave charges against his son, several questionable monetary transactions in which he had reason to suspect he was engaged, and one or two recent little disputes which he had had with his son, occurred to him, and he began to fear that the disclosure of the absentee’s name would be a very painful one to himself.
b. To be uneasy; to worry.
1884. Manch. Exam., 25 Nov., 5/1. They can but fidget and fume.
1884. Mrs. Ewing, Mary’s Meadow (1886), 58. Mother fidgetted because I looked ill.
2. trans. To cause (a person) to fidget; to make uncomfortable, trouble or worry; refl. to take trouble. To fidget into: to force into a specified condition by fidgeting; hyperbolically, to fidget to death.
1785. [see FIDGETING ppl. a.].
1816. Jane Austen, Emma, II. ix. 178. She says I fidget her to death; and Miss Woodhouse looks as if she could almost say the same.
1836. T. E. Hook, Gilbert Gurney, I. 85. The coolness of the breeze and the fragrance of the flowers promised to moderate the fever into which I had fidgetted myself.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 55. Spaniards never fidget themselves to get quickly to places where nobody is expecting them.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xxv. (1879), 229. The heat fidgetted them all by day, and the musquitoes by night.
3. To move about restlessly and uneasily. rare.
1819. E. S. Barrett, Metropolis, I. 86. Des fausses manières, gigglings, titterings, nibbling of lips, fan-flirting, and fidgetting the body about, disfigure many young women, and deprive them of half their attraction.
Hence Fidgeted ppl. a., Fidgeting vbl. sb.
1765. C. Smart, Fable, iv., in Poems (1791), II. 11.
| The poker lost, poor Susan storm’d, | |
| And all the rites of rage perform’d, | |
| As scolding, crying, swearing, sweating, | |
| Abusing, fidgetting, and fretting. |
1775. Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), II. 17. ‘How can you say so, Sir?’ cried Bell … colouring, and much fidgetted.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 66. Nothing is gained by fidgeting and overdoing.
