tiddlywinks

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
23
Words With Friends
24
Letters
11
Pronunciation
/ˈtɪdəlɪwɪŋks/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈtɪdəlɪwɪŋks/ · /ˈtɪdlɪ-/ · /ˈtɪdliˌwɪŋks/

Definition of tiddlywinks

4 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (also, attributive, plural, plural-only)A competitive game in which the objective is to flick as many small discs (each called a tiddlywink or wink) as possible into a container (the pot) by pressing on their edges with a larger disc (a shooter or squidger), causing them to jump up from the surface on which they are placed.
    “Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the derivation of the word "kiddlewink," or "tiddledy winks"? A friend tells me in the Midland Counties it denotes a house where beer is sold without a licence. Lately a game has been introduced here bearing the name of "Tiddledywinks."”
    “Recreation rooms were provided for both boys and girl, and the long winter evenings were anything but dreary, for when school was done and work over the children gathered in the brilliantly lit, hot-pipe-heated rooms and played draughts, bagatelle, lotto, or tiddly-winks.”
    “What had been his hypothetical singular solutions? Parlour games (dominos, halma, tiddledywinks, spilikins, cup and ball, nap, spoil five, bezique, twentyfive, beggar my neighbour, draughts, chess or backgammon): […]”
    “Mantrap—Sinclair Lewis—Harcourt, Brace. The great realist plays an amusing game of tiddlywinks in the north woods.”
See all 4 definitions

noun

  1. (also, attributive, plural, plural-only)A competitive game in which the objective is to flick as many small discs (each called a tiddlywink or wink) as possible into a container (the pot) by pressing on their edges with a larger disc (a shooter or squidger), causing them to jump up from the surface on which they are placed.
    “Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the derivation of the word "kiddlewink," or "tiddledy winks"? A friend tells me in the Midland Counties it denotes a house where beer is sold without a licence. Lately a game has been introduced here bearing the name of "Tiddledywinks."”
    “Recreation rooms were provided for both boys and girl, and the long winter evenings were anything but dreary, for when school was done and work over the children gathered in the brilliantly lit, hot-pipe-heated rooms and played draughts, bagatelle, lotto, or tiddly-winks.”
    “What had been his hypothetical singular solutions? Parlour games (dominos, halma, tiddledywinks, spilikins, cup and ball, nap, spoil five, bezique, twentyfive, beggar my neighbour, draughts, chess or backgammon): […]”
    “Mantrap—Sinclair Lewis—Harcourt, Brace. The great realist plays an amusing game of tiddlywinks in the north woods.”
  2. (figuratively, plural, plural-only)Especially in the form to play tiddlywinks: a meaningless or unimportant activity.
  3. (form-of, plural)plural of tiddlywink

verb

  1. (form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person)third-person singular simple present indicative of tiddlywink

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From tiddlywink + -s, possibly from tiddly (“(informal) little, tiny”) + wink (“blinking of one eye”), perhaps borrowed from tiddlywink, etymology 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop; game played using dominoes”,…

See full etymology

From tiddlywink + -s, possibly from tiddly (“(informal) little, tiny”) + wink (“blinking of one eye”), perhaps borrowed from tiddlywink, etymology 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop; game played using dominoes”, etc.). The game was patented by a British bank clerk, Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900), on 19 October 1889, and the name Tiddledy-Winks trademarked by him the same year. Tiddlywinks is the preferred modern spelling; the earliest known use of this spelling dates from 1894.

Words you can make from tiddlywinks

177 playable · top: TIDDLYWINK (22 pts)

Best play tiddlywink 22 points

7-letter words

5 words

6-letter words

17 words

5-letter words

44 words

4-letter words

67 words

3-letter words

35 words

2-letter words

8 words

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