1
as in fidgeted
to make jerky or restless movements
the executive fiddled with a pen as she impatiently waited for the meeting to begin
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cheated
to rob by the use of trickery or threats
conscienceless grifters who had spent their lives fiddling the naive
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of fiddled
But what does some scientist know about eating fruit, of all things, when your hamstring feels like it’s being fiddled by Satan?
—
Dan England,
Outside,
5 Feb. 2026
As Rossini stowed her purse in a tiny back office, a manager named Katie Atlas was onboarding a new employee, a young woman who fiddled nervously with her necklace.
—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Communities across the globe probably independently fiddled their way towards the invention of proto lip balms over and over.
—
Mark Hay,
Popular Science,
13 Aug. 2025
Dan England,
Outside,
5 Feb. 2026
As Rossini stowed her purse in a tiny back office, a manager named Katie Atlas was onboarding a new employee, a young woman who fiddled nervously with her necklace.
—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Communities across the globe probably independently fiddled their way towards the invention of proto lip balms over and over.
—
Mark Hay,
Popular Science,
13 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fiddled
Verb
-
One woman ordered some home furniture while two children fidgeted nearby.
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Between each dance was an excruciating silence during which network-TV producers monitored and reset their equipment while the men fidgeted onstage like excitable children.
Verb
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The fans were cheated Sunday out of a chance to see an interesting pitching matchup between Shota Imanaga and Dylan Cease, the former Cubs farmhand and former White Sox pitcher.
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Looking the other way A 2020 study of 840 undergraduate college students found that 32% of them had cheated in some way on an exam.
Verb
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The governor, at first, tossed the question to Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper.
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But the referee caught him and tossed him from the match.
Verb
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Its members were plucked from 120,000 international applicants to be rigorously trained, molded, and manufactured into international superstars through K-pop methodology.
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Editor Picks One way to weed through the pages and pages of deals is going straight to the Vogue editor picks section, to see what the team has hand-plucked across all categories.
Verb
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Many a club’s board would have twitched in the face of the bare data, but the chain of command above Arteta stayed the course, and the FOMO is so high that tickets for Palace away this weekend are going for £45,000 ($60,000) on resale sites.
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My jaw twitched uncontrollably.
Verb
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Like many European carmakers, it has been squeezed by fresh tariffs on its exports to the United States as well as struggling to counter the rise of Chinese electric vehicles manufacturers, including BYD.
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Until then, concern that the smartphone market would continue to be squeezed by memory chip shortages had led investors to take a cautious view on Qualcomm’s prospects.
Verb
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Belloumi’s 64th-minute strike with his left foot broke the deadlock in the second game of the two-leg affair and Gelhardt made sure with a low shot that squirmed past the Millwall goalkeeper.
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His Japanese guest, usually a paragon of diplomatic cool, visibly squirmed.
Verb
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The first inning looked promising as Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda singled, and Cedric Mullins hustled his bunt attempt into a hit to load the bases.
-
As bankers hustled behind closed doors to price the deal and reporters indicated a first price of as high as $175, SpaceX perp-traders on Hyperliquid were buying and selling futures as high as $180 around the opening bell and as low as $153 just before the first trade came in at $150.
Cite this Entry
“Fiddled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fiddled. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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