(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.
Whirl
Definition:
(v. t.) To turn round rapidly; to cause to rotate with velocity; to make to revolve.
(v. t.) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch; to harry.
(v. i.) To be turned round rapidly; to move round with velocity; to revolve or rotate with great speed; to gyrate.
(v. i.) To move hastily or swiftly.
(v. t.) A turning with rapidity or velocity; rapid rotation or circumvolution; quick gyration; rapid or confusing motion; as, the whirl of a top; the whirl of a wheel.
(v. t.) Anything that moves with a whirling motion.
(v. t.) A revolving hook used in twisting, as the hooked spindle of a rope machine, to which the threads to be twisted are attached.
(v. t.) A whorl. See Whorl.
Example Sentences:
(1) In the box the atmosphere is whirled round by a fan and hereby led over a layer of catalyst.
(2) Water contaminated by Myxosoma cerebralis was disinfected with ultraviolet irradiation to control whirling disease.
(3) But then this isn’t really a team yet, more a working model conjured out of the air by Klopp’s whirling hands on the touchline.
(4) It's tempting to see all this layering as a painstaking effort on Green's part to understand her husband's death, but it's clear she sees it more as an expression of the absence of meaning that has resulted from it, the wild and whirling words of grief.
(5) Antonio Valencia raced around like the winger of a few seasons ago; Danny Welbeck discovered an extra yard of pace and an ability to spin opponents; Wayne Rooney was once more the whirling team totem, the closest to Roy Keane the club has had since the Irishman departed nine years ago.
(6) In contrast to the more uniform localization of antigens 01 through 010 over the whole cell surface, antigens 011 and 012 are less strongly detectable on cell bodies than on processes and membranous whirls.
(7) The not yet solved and serious uncertainities which need priority in the research are, according to the speaker, the control of the amebiasis of hatchery rainbow trout, the incysted icthyophtiriasis of various fresh water fishes, the rainbow trout myxosomiasis (Whirling disease), and the argulosis of eel reared in brackish water lagoons.
(8) Pape Souaré’s substitution at half-time was presumably so Palace’s left-back could have his neck iced, so many times did he find himself whirling around in a funk trying to work out exactly where Mahrez had shimmied off to now.
(9) That it should take a young Anglo-Lebanese barrister, recently married to a Hollywood star, to reanimate the debate (in a whirl of camera-clicks and flash bulbs), says much about the times we live in.
(10) That’s when all the wealthy widows who live elsewhere the rest of the year flock to their Florida mansions and get caught up in a whirl of charity balls and dinners.
(11) The numerous internal membranous bodies, some of which arise from the plasma membrane of the vegetative hypha, may be vesicular, whirled, or convoluted.
(12) Based in the Netherlands, where he is artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam , the country's foremost theatre company, he frequently whirls his productions through European cities.
(13) Eukaryotic cell structures have been detected consisting of lamella layers whirled around the intact rickettsiae.
(14) The frequency with which the word whirling and similar words (whirlall words) were used in Rorschach tests administered to 1154 medical students 20 to 35 years ago has been counted by computer.
(15) This angelic whirling is a perfect counterpoint to the earthly chanting.
(16) In addition, a high incidence 1) of micronodular hepatocellular whirling lesions with increased basophilia, 2) of other proliferative areas of altered cellularity and 3) of precancerous nodules was found in the livers of schistosome-infected mice treated with hycanthone.
(17) The main subjective complaint was vertigo (whirling; 93%).
(18) So the studios made sure that those who appeared on screen could not be perceived as gay, marrying them off in a whirl of publicity if necessary.
(19) Give the Aussie Eggs a whirl: poached free range eggs on toast with tomato, garlic and fresh basil.
(20) Typical alterations are the vascular lesions of the conjunctiva, the whirl-like opacities of the cornea, the wedge-shaped anterior opacities and the branching spokes of the lens, as well as the vascular lesions of the retina.