v. Obs. exc. dial. or slang. Also 7–9 tittle. [In sense 1 perh. connected with TID a. The two senses may be distinct words.]
1. trans. To fondle or indulge to excess; to pet, pamper; to tend carefully, nurse, cherish.
1560. Nice Wanton, in Hazl., Dodsley, II. 173. My parents did tiddle me: they were to blame.
1653. Verney Memoirs (1894), III. 203. To midwife it out, and to tittle it up and to bring it with you in your coach.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), To Tiddle, to indulge, or fondle, to make much of.
1755. Johnson, Tiddle, v. a. (from Tid), to use tenderly; to fondle.
1839. [Sir G. C. Lewis], Herefordsh. Gloss. (E.D.D.).
1881. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Tiddle, to nurse and nurture tenderly.
1893. S. E. Worc. Gloss., s.v., You may tiddle a monkey ’till ’e befouls your trenchud.
2. intr. To potter, trifle, ‘fiddle’; to fidget, fuss.
1747. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xlii. 322. To leave the family pictures … to you, because you could tiddle about them, and … wipe and clean them with your dainty hands!
1839. Holloway, Dict. Prov., s.v., ‘Tiddling about’ is being busy about trifles.
1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. Tittle, (Cumbld.) I could par’ [pare] the fut with a buttress while another is tittlin’ over it with a draw-knife.
Hence Tiddling ppl. a., that ‘tiddles’; overindulgent; Tiddlingly adv., indulgently.
1580. Lupton, Sivqila, 37. The most of our youth … are so tydlingly, fondly, wantonly, and idlely brought up, that it is a griefe to the godlye.
