(v. i.) To move uneasily one way and the other; to move irregularly, or by fits and starts.
(n.) Uneasiness; restlessness.
(n.) A general nervous restlessness, manifested by incessant changes of position; dysphoria.
Example Sentences:
(1) Updated at 5.11pm BST 5.07pm BST 68th over: Sri Lanka 251-9 (Herath 10, Pradeep 11) Plunkett sends one towards Herath's visage, and he fidgets it down without looking happy in the process, before Pradeep guides one over the slips and gets two.
(2) Hyperactive, and fidgeting behavior in children, is not a new syndrome, but has been present in children for centuries.
(3) Small wonder that the few fans left were sat fidgeting in silence, that the injured David Villa, Carlos Marchena, Rubén Baraja and Santi Cañizares had their heads in their hands up in the stands, or that the Youmus ultras turned their backs on the pitch.
(4) At one point, I fidget with my glasses so as to read the programme – Chloe swings round and throws me a stinging glance of reproach, like a seasoned concert-goer scolding a child – rather than the other way round.
(5) As one question follows another he fidgets, criss-crosses legs, examines my phone, broods, winces, tugs his hair, yanks it up, then down, then to the side, momentarily creating a mad professor effect which would be funny were it not for the death stare.
(6) The characters are always smiling, frowning, blushing, twitching, fidgeting, touching, kissing, bowing, sobbing, and deconstructing these signs in each other.
(7) Civil war still a bitter memory as El Salvador prepares to beatify Romero Read more Instead, the federal public defender who has taken on Montano’s case, James E Todd, bombarded the court with 44 pieces of evidence – mostly declassified diplomatic cables from the time – all of which he slowly read aloud for several hours as the prosecutor openly fidgeted and rolled his eyes.
(8) The propositus, a 57-year-old man, suffered from repeated, intense, asymmetric flexion jerks of the lower extremities, alternating with fidgeting and friction movements of the legs; all occurred at night prior to sleep and severely interfering with it.
(9) We have good evidence that certain behaviours – scratching or fidgeting – is an indicator of anxiety, and in certain zoos those behaviours increase in frequency as visitor numbers go up and they get more noisy.” According to Dr Emily Bethell, senior lecturer in primate behaviour at Liverpool John Moores University , the fact a captive gorilla was charging at the glass, banging on objects or throwing objects did not necessarily mean it was unhappy, since this was classic “display” behaviour designed to assert his dominance.
(10) "Quite the opposite," says Bird, his fidgeting kicking up a gear.
(11) What was actually being transmitted, for what now seems an eternity, was us: sitting, staring, frowning, fidgeting.
(12) Her anxiety was manifested by facial twitching, hand fidgeting, vocal tremor, loss of self-esteem, and depression.
(13) He fidgeted and moved constantly, tapping on his smartphone, buying arms, selling rockets, importing cars and arranging schooling for his many nephews and nieces.
(14) The most obvious evidence of lowered vigilance is motor restlessness (fidgeting and moving about, yawning and stretching, talkativeness, or a combination of these) to improve alertness when sitting or standing still or when involved in tasks requiring continuous mental performance.
(15) Ectomesenchyme affected by the white gene stimulated optic-vesicle growth, to some extent suppressing the effect of the fidget gene.
(16) Urban and electronica have thrown up endless new sub-genres: there was crunk and hyphy in the US, while in Britain you could take your pick from dubstep, grime, fidget house, purple wow, sublow, 8-bar or eski-beat.
(17) Mourinho fidgeted frustratedly in his technical area, his mood darkened when Ryan Bennett swung his leg to challenge Hazard in the area with the Belgian leaping to avoid the limb and tumbling to the turf as a result.
(18) After much fidgeting and prevarication, Cain eventually claimed he would have done a better job than the president.
(19) And so I sat fidgeting, scrawling on the newspapers, peering and shuffling.
(20) They had Nike shopping bags and new jeans, and the smuggler was – as usual – fidgeting with his phone.
Twiddle
Definition:
(v. t.) To touch lightly, or play with; to tweedle; to twirl; as, to twiddle one's thumbs; to twiddle a watch key.
(v. i.) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles.
(n.) A slight twist with the fingers.
(n.) A pimple.
Example Sentences:
(1) Starved cells suspended in a potassium-free medium respond to the addition of valinomycin by a brief period of vigorous twiddling.
(2) Valinomycin-induced twiddling occurs in the absence of external alkali or alkaline earth cations and without significant net synthesis of ATP.
(3) Sue Vertue, executive producer for programme-maker, Hartswood Films, said: “It’s taken a little while to get the dates sorted as none of the boys are exactly sitting back twiddling their thumbs but there was unanimous goodwill to make this work so we’re thrilled that 221B is going to be inhabited again.” The filming schedules of the drama’s two leads, who have become big screen stars since the drama first aired on BBC1 in 2010 – Freeman in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit adaptations and Cumberbatch in a variety of films including Star Trek sequel, Into Darkness, has always been seen the principal barrier to future runs of the show.
(4) Lipophilic cations bind to the ion gate controlling the twiddle frequency and thereby cause the cells to swim smoothly.
(5) Benzema, as if inspired, twiddles his way past a defender in the box and opens fire.
(6) That leads to three disasters: it only shunts trust debts to next year; it passes debts this year to hospitals whose surgeons twiddle their thumbs; and waiting lists soar.
(7) He pointedly hands me his menu, which I study while he twiddles his thumbs.
(8) A simple analytical model is proposed to account for the contribution of the twiddle motion to the correlation function.
(9) Daft Punk themselves are in a separate DJ booth twiddling with nobs that surely don't do anything.
(10) As a consequence we are able to extract a parameter beta, which measures the average fraction of twiddling bacteria in the center of the band at a given time.
(11) Reznor walks me into what he calls his "adult playpen of knob-twiddling": a small garage converted into an Aladdin's cave of instruments, mixing desks and synthesizer modules, their lights winking in the dark.
(12) When a furry green puppet eventually emerges, they squeal with delight – although Twiddle the Turtle's message seems to baffle them slightly.
(13) And if you want to read a novel (or, OK, twiddle with your phone) on your commute, you should be demanding better public transit, not self-driving cars.
(14) The whole thing in France took place in French, he couldn't speak French, so he kind of sat in the corner twiddling his thumbs while I was negotiating and trying to buy a player."
(15) He put out the mics and was twiddling the knobs.” The re-mastered Definitely Maybe is out on 19 May.
(16) "If you are not currently able to benefit from the RHI and were waiting on new tariffs then what are you meant to do - keep twiddling your thumbs?"
(17) The cells move steadily along smooth paths (run), jump about briefly with little net displacement (twiddle), and then run in new directions.
(18) They also twiddle, although less vigorously, when the external pH is lowered.
(19) Vilma is a "granger" – a term I coined to describe the "grey anger" of those who won't willingly enter the people farms, who don't want to spend their retirement twiddling thumbs and perennially tapping little white balls into a hole in a patch of cultivated grass.
(20) Similarly, when starved cells are suspended in a potassium-free medium containing both valinomycin and an attractant, many cells initially run rather than twiddle.