fiddling

/'fidliɳ/

Thân thiện

A shopkeeper counts out a fiddling amount of change for a customer.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Trivial, insignificant: Describing something as very small, unimportant, or of little consequence.
   • Petty, minor: Characterizing an action, detail, or amount as being concerned with or involving trivial matters.

Usage

The adjective "fiddling" is used informally, often in a dismissive or critical way, to emphasize that something is too minor or trivial to be worth serious attention, time, or effort. It typically modifies nouns like details, sum, amount, tasks, or matters.

Examples

• Adjective:
  • He wasted the whole afternoon on fiddling administrative tasks.
  • Don't bother the manager with such fiddling details; handle them yourself.
  • After the massive investment, the cost overrun was a fiddling amount.

Advanced Usage

• "fiddling with": While "fiddling" as a standalone adjective means "trivial," the related verb phrase "to fiddle with something" means to keep touching or adjusting it in a restless way. It is crucial to distinguish these uses.
  • Stop fiddling with your pen during the meeting. (Here, "fiddling" is a present participle from the verb "to fiddle.")
  • We have more important issues than these fiddling regulations. (Here, "fiddling" is an adjective meaning "trivial.")

Variants and Related Words

• Fiddle (verb): To touch or handle something restlessly or nervously; to tinker with.
  • He tends to fiddle with his glasses when he's nervous.
• Fiddly (adjective, chiefly British): Annoyingly difficult to do or use because of many small parts or details.
  • Assembling the model airplane was a fiddly job.

Synonyms

• Petty: Of little importance; trivial.
• Trivial: Of little value or importance.
• Paltry: Ridiculously or insultingly small.
• Negligible: So small or unimportant as to be not worth considering.
• Picayune (North American): Petty; trivial.

Antonyms

• Significant: Sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention.
• Substantial: Of considerable importance, size, or worth.
• Major: Important, serious, or significant.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. (informal) small and of little importance
   • a fiddling sum of money
   • a footling gesture
   • our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war
   • a little (or small) matter
   • a dispute over niggling details
   • limited to petty enterprises
   • piffling efforts
   • giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction