tiddler

noun

tid·​dler ˈti-dᵊl-ər 

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

Example Sentences

The company is no tiddler.

Recent Examples on the Web

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

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Word History

Etymology

probably from English dialect tiddly little

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined at sense 1