twiddle

«twiddle» in Mova's school dictionary: To twist, turn or play with something with your fingers… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (twiddle, twiddles, twiddled, twiddling); noun (a twiddle)

meaning for a pupil

1) To twist, turn or play with something with your fingers, often without thinking: twiddle a knob, twiddle your hair. tree →

2) (phrase) «twiddle your thumbs» = to sit doing nothing, waiting, bored. tree →

sense in the lessons

Everyday: twiddling the dial on a radio, twiddling a pencil. «Twiddling our thumbs» = wasting time while waiting. In stories it shows nervousness or boredom.

examples

• Stop twiddling your hair! tree →
• He twiddled the knob to find the station. tree →
• We sat twiddling our thumbs while the bus was late. tree →
• She twiddled her pencil during the test. tree →
• Toad twiddled his thumbs, bored with the river. tree →
• Twiddle the dial to set the oven. tree →

note

Informal. Regular verb. Similar: fiddle, twirl, twist.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «twiddle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.