Also dial. Tom Tickler’s, Tittler’s, Tinker’s ground. Name of a children’s game.
One of the players is Tom Tiddler, his territory being marked by a line drawn on the ground; over this the other players run, crying ‘We’re on Tom Tiddler’s ground, picking up gold and silver.’ They are chased by Tom Tiddler, the first, or sometimes the last, caught taking his place.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Wds. & Phr., 437. Tom Tickler’s ground, a juvenile sport.
1861. Miss Yonge, Stokesley Secret, ii. 34. She heard the joyous cry behind her—‘I’m on Tommy Tittler’s ground, Picking up gold and silver.’
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Family, II. xvi. Squalid children played about the door and made their Tom Tiddler’s ground of the steps and street.
b. transf. Any place where money or other consideration is ‘picked up’ or acquired readily; also, a disputed or ‘debatable territory, a no man’s land between two states’ (Slang Dict.).
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxvi. Now, the spacious dining-room with the company seated round the glittering table,… might have been taken for a grown-up exposition of Tom Tiddler’s ground, where children pick up gold and silver. Ibid. (1861), Tom Tiddler’s Ground, i. And ‘why Tom Tiddler’s ground?’ said the Traveller. ‘Because he scatters halfpence to Tramps and such-like,’ returned the Landlord, ‘and of course they pick ’em up.’
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 290. He … had come on to … Tom Tidler’s ground,… gold … was sticking out of the soil everywhere.
1910. W. Sichel, Glenbervie Jrnls., i. 6. Ireland was then the Tom Tiddler’s ground of parliamentary fortune hunters.
