chiefly British
: requiring close attention to detail : fussy
especially
: requiring an annoying amount of close attention
the tiny control buttons on the back are fiddly —
M. J. McNamara
M. J. McNamara Examples of fiddly in a Sentence
connecting up all the wires and the other fiddly bits
Recent Examples on the Web
But perhaps the best known, if rather fiddly, way of watching an eclipse using pinhole projection is to make your own pinhole camera.
—Jamie Carter, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
The fiddly little parts that the company churns out—many billions every year—are today mostly made from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, or ABS.
—WIRED, 30 Sep. 2023
Three different seats are on offer: Our car had the midrange Sport Plus seats, which had plenty of lateral support, but the controls on the side of the console are somewhat fiddly.
—Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 4 July 2023
That and the fiddly nature of the job.
—Ian McEwan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
But linking the computers running such software to radios is often surprisingly fiddly in the age of painless USB and Bluetooth.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Feb. 2016
Put another way, some of us might get to live our lives with one less fiddly thing to worry about — and that’s not nothing.
—Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 10 June 2022
This dependable propane model heats up quickly, has reversible cast-iron grill grates (flip to the smaller side for small fiddly food like vegetables and shrimp), and is easy to assemble.
—Lauren Joseph, Bon Appétit, 22 June 2021
Democrats nationally started shifting away from caucuses to primaries before 2020, citing the difficulty of attending an in-person meeting and the fiddly math involved to determine who wins the most delegates.
—Michelle L. Price, Star Tribune, 11 June 2021
Jamie Carter, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
The fiddly little parts that the company churns out—many billions every year—are today mostly made from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, or ABS.
—WIRED, 30 Sep. 2023
Three different seats are on offer: Our car had the midrange Sport Plus seats, which had plenty of lateral support, but the controls on the side of the console are somewhat fiddly.
—Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 4 July 2023
That and the fiddly nature of the job.
—Ian McEwan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
But linking the computers running such software to radios is often surprisingly fiddly in the age of painless USB and Bluetooth.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Feb. 2016
Put another way, some of us might get to live our lives with one less fiddly thing to worry about — and that’s not nothing.
—Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 10 June 2022
This dependable propane model heats up quickly, has reversible cast-iron grill grates (flip to the smaller side for small fiddly food like vegetables and shrimp), and is easy to assemble.
—Lauren Joseph, Bon Appétit, 22 June 2021
Democrats nationally started shifting away from caucuses to primaries before 2020, citing the difficulty of attending an in-person meeting and the fiddly math involved to determine who wins the most delegates.
—Michelle L. Price, Star Tribune, 11 June 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fiddly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near fiddly
Cite this Entry
“Fiddly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiddly. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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