(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.