(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.
Wiggle
Definition:
(v. t.) To move to and fro with a quick, jerking motion; to bend rapidly, or with a wavering motion, from side to side; to wag; to squirm; to wriggle; as, the dog wiggles his tail; the tadpole wiggles in the water.
(n.) Act of wiggling; a wriggle.
Example Sentences:
(1) But Ian Wright, the chair of the then business innovations and skills select committee and one of the MPs behind Thursday’s motion, said the criticism of their work by Green’s team was an attempt to “wiggle off the hook”.
(2) Similarities and differences between the neural control of lordosis and ear wiggling in infant and adult rats suggest that the infant sex-like behaviors may be precursors of adult female sexual behavior.
(3) Eagle has since said that her pinkie wiggle was "commenting on the size of GDP growth".
(4) GRRRR," he guffawed, eyebrows wiggling lasciviously, before being ejected from Booty at 230mph courtesy of a broom and a gallon of budget acrylic nail glue.
(5) There was little about business, again, and some of the spending language conceals the fact that Labour may be quietly creating a very considerable amount of wiggle-room on investment – as much as £50bn each year, according to the IFS.
(6) Ear wiggling was disrupted by transections throughout the hindbrain and was facilitated only in females by transections throughout the forebrain (anterior to the mammillary bodies).
(7) Simple models are used to calculate the inelastic light scattering spectrum of motile bacteria when wiggling motions are included in addition to translational displacement.
(8) We are not letting anyone wiggle out of any commitments and I have every confidence that the government will honour its commitments,” she added.
(9) However, analysts expect that the Green party's decision to rule itself out of the future coalition could allow chancellor Angela Merkel some wiggle room in scaling back the speed of the shutdown, expected to cost €550m.
(10) 5.58pm BST In Mitt Romney 's ceremonial end to his world tour – the traditional interview with Fox News – Romney appeared to try and wiggle out of his "cultural" argument regarding Israel's superiority over Palestine.
(11) Such cuts would presumably be ones that were considered but rejected in favour of the tax credit cuts in July.” The only other way to avoid a Commons vote would be if the OBR reduced their forecast for welfare spending, since that would give the chancellor a “little more wiggle room under the cap”.
(12) I said, ‘What’s so funny?’ and they told me that my toes were wiggling.
(13) US manoeuvre in South China Sea leaves little wiggle room with China Read more The guided-missile destroyer reportedly received orders to travel within 12 nautical miles (22.2km, or 13.8 miles) of the Spratlys’ Mischief and Subi reefs, which are at the heart of a controversial Chinese island building campaign that has soured ties between Washington and Beijing.
(14) He took on a respected urine-sample collector named Dino Laurenzi , whose decision to store samples at his office ultimately allowed Braun the wiggle room he needed to overturn his suspension for testing positive for PEDs.
(15) These data suggest that facilitation from the hypothalamus is required for lordosis in the infant rat and the forebrain inhibitory systems for ear wiggling are functional in female infants by 6 days of age.
(16) After Lynch wiggles for three yards, Seattle face a 3rd & 6...in the shotgun, Wilson takes off before sending a floater downfield that barley escapes the fingers of Eric Reid - instead, it falls safely into the hands of Doug Baldwin for 22 yards.
(17) She leans forward and wiggles her bum while clutching a teddy bear.
(18) It was found that estrous females showed about twice as much ear wiggling in the presence of intact males as in the presence of gonadectomized male and female rats.
(19) Before the election Abbott vowed to end uncertainty by "guaranteeing that no school will be worse off over the forward estimates period" but Pyne’s new formulation leaves wiggle room for the states to be blamed.
(20) Facial wiggle that resulted from direct electrical facial nerve stimulation caused synchronous contraction of all reinnervated strap muscles under study; this was documented on film and through facial and strap muscle activity tracings.