tiddler

noun

tid·​dler ˈti-dᵊl-ər How to pronounce tiddler (audio)
ˈtid-lər
1
British : a small fish (such as a stickleback or minnow)
Children paddle and fish for tiddlers near the riverside church at Loose in Kent.Stuart Verrells
2
British, informal : a small person or thing
IBM, the world's biggest computer maker, has signed alliances with nearly 20 tiddlers to try to combine their innovation with its own prowess in marketing and customer service.The Economist

Examples of tiddler in a Sentence

The company is no tiddler.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Just shy of $200bn, Comcast, a cable company which last year bought Sky, a British satellite broadcaster, is the tiddler of the bunch. The Economist, 15 Aug. 2019 On October 29th the American chipmaking tiddler reported its third-quarter results. The Economist, 31 Oct. 2019 Just shy of $200bn, Comcast, a cable company which last year bought Sky, a British satellite broadcaster, is a relative tiddler. The Economist, 14 Aug. 2019 Solar-powered fish-dryers have quickened the process of preparing tiddlers for market. The Economist, 16 Sep. 2019 And though the West Antarctic ice sheet is a tiddler compared with its eastern neighbour, its collapse would mean a GMSL rise of about 3.5 metres. The Economist, 17 Aug. 2019 Its cargo airline, Amazon Air, is still a tiddler compared with FedEx, with just 33 jets in its fleet. The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018 Canada’s corporate-bond market is a relative tiddler, with a total of 604 new bond issues in the past two years. The Economist, 10 May 2018 Most of these tiddlers are islands, some tiny, whose governments enjoy a rare platform offered by the Commonwealth for voicing their environmental worries, especially over climate change. The Economist, 12 Apr. 2018

Word History

Etymology

probably from English dialect tiddly little

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of tiddler was in 1885

Dictionary Entries Near tiddler

Cite this Entry

“Tiddler.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tiddler. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!