piddling

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪdəlɪŋ/

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piddling (not comparable)

1. Insignificant, negligible, paltry, trivial, useless.

   After all the work I'd done, he gave me a piddling amount of money.

   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     the ignoble hucksterage of piddling tithes

   • 2023 August 6, Daniel Duane, “It’s August. Californians Are Still Skiing. Don’t Ask.”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Los Angeles would still be a piddling little town in a desert if it weren’t for Sierra snowmelt and city officials crafty enough to snooker eastern California farmers out of their water rights.

piddling

1. present participle and gerund of piddle