What does piddle mean?
Piddle is an informal verb meaning to urinate, especially to urinate a small amount. It can also describe a tap or other source squirting liquid in a weak or irregular stream. In figurative use, piddle about means to spend time doing something trivial or wasting time, often while avoiding a more serious task. The word is chiefly conversational and can sound dismissive, especially when used of someone’s unproductive activity, though its literal bodily sense is often neutral or matter-of-fact. Its noun use, meaning urine, is also informal and uncommon in formal contexts. Piddle can therefore connect a physical act with the broader idea of insignificant activity or behaviour.
To urinate, especially to pass a small amount of urine; to squirt or spray liquid; or to spend time idly, especially in the phrase piddle about.
"The old radiator began to piddle water across the floor."
Informal. The figurative use is usually dismissive.
Urine, especially as passed in a small amount.
"There was a small piddle on the edge of the bath."
Informal and uncommon in formal writing.
The plural is uncommon because the noun is informal and rarely used in countable contexts.
"The dog left small piddles along the path."
From an urgent bodily signal to an dismissive description of wasting time, piddle can move quickly from the literal to the figurative.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does piddle come from?
The precise origin of piddle is uncertain. The word has been recorded in English since at least the early modern period, and its sound has invited comparison with other imitative words for liquids or bodily functions. Its meanings developed from the basic sense of passing urine to the associated ideas of a weak or intermittent flow and, figuratively, idle or trivial activity.
Related word forms
How piddle is actually used
The verb is informal and often somewhat dismissive or childish when used figuratively, as in piddle about. The noun, meaning urine, is informal and generally unsuitable for formal writing.