FIDDLED Synonyms: 93 Similar and Opposite Words

fiddled

verb

past tense of fiddle

as in fidgeted

to make jerky or restless movements the executive fiddled with a pen as she impatiently waited for the meeting to begin

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in cheated

to rob by the use of trickery or threats conscienceless grifters who had spent their lives fiddling the naive

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of fiddled But what does some scientist know about eating fruit, of all things, when your hamstring feels like it’s being fiddled by Satan? — Dan England, Outside, 5 Feb. 2026 As Rossini stowed her purse in a tiny back office, a manager named Katie Atlas was onboarding a new employee, a young woman who fiddled nervously with her necklace. — Hannah Goldfield, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025 Communities across the globe probably independently fiddled their way towards the invention of proto lip balms over and over. — Mark Hay, Popular Science, 13 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fiddled

Verb

One woman ordered some home furniture while two children fidgeted nearby.

— David Lyons, Sun Sentinel, 23 Mar. 2026
Between each dance was an excruciating silence during which network-TV producers monitored and reset their equipment while the men fidgeted onstage like excitable children.

— Rebecca Jennings, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026

Definition of fidgeted

Verb

Bo told Lu that if the audit produced evidence that he had been cheated, Wang should go to prison.

— Hailey Wang, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2026
In one case, several systems worked on a problem in parallel, one cheated outright, and the system assigned to summarize their work did not flag it.

— Craig S. Smith, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026

Definition of cheated

Verb

Doubs plucked the ball over Gonzalez, who had successfully backed him near the boundary but couldn’t box out the 6-foot-2 receiver entirely.

— Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 10 Aug. 2026
The bass player plucked each of his instrument’s four strings, one at a time, while turning the corresponding tuning pegs.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of plucked

Verb

Many a club’s board would have twitched in the face of the bare data, but the chain of command above Arteta stayed the course, and the FOMO is so high that tickets for Palace away this weekend are going for £45,000 ($60,000) on resale sites.

— Phil Hay, New York Times, 21 May 2026
My jaw twitched uncontrollably.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 May 2026

Definition of twitched

Verb

But attorneys and housing advocates who work with struggling homeowners say household budgets are being squeezed from several directions.

— Nora O'Neill, Charlotte Observer, 11 Aug. 2026
Io is repeatedly squeezed and stretched by Jupiter and the gravitational pulls of neighboring moons Europa and Ganymede.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 11 Aug. 2026

Definition of squeezed

Verb

Belloumi’s 64th-minute strike with his left foot broke the deadlock in the second game of the two-leg affair and Gelhardt made sure with a low shot that squirmed past the Millwall goalkeeper.

— ABC News, ABC News, 11 May 2026
His Japanese guest, usually a paragon of diplomatic cool, visibly squirmed.

— Andreas Kluth, Twin Cities, 14 Apr. 2026

Definition of squirmed

Verb

The over-all technical director, Oscar Lopez, whose day job entails managing events at Resorts World, hustled crews carefully among setups and sites.

— Paige Williams, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
During a break Saturday, Freeling hustled home and caught two episodes before returning to the hotel where the rookies and younger players stay during camp ahead of curfew.

— Joseph Person, New York Times, 27 July 2026