Niggle

//ˈnɪɡəl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A minor complaint or problem.

    "The Olympic medal contender's back problem has been described as a "niggle" by the head coach, Charles van Commenee, but Porter's friend and former team-mate Danielle Carruthers revealed that the injury is playing on the Briton's mind."

  2. 2
    Small, cramped handwriting. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To trifle with; to deceive; to mock. obsolete, transitive

    "I shall so feed your fierce vexation , And raise your worship ' s storms ; I shall so niggle you , And juggle you , and fiddle you , and firk you"

  2. 2
    argue over petty things wordnet
  3. 3
    To use, spend, or do in a petty or trifling manner. transitive
  4. 4
    worry unnecessarily or excessively wordnet
  5. 5
    To dwell too much on minor points or on trifling details. intransitive
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To fidget, fiddle, be restless. UK, intransitive
  2. 7
    To walk with short steps. UK, archaic, dialectal, intransitive

    "I can see him now with his one eye closed as he came niggling along, and didn't he just give me a grandfather's blessing!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
fussquibblenibbleadverse criticismanimadversionaspersion

Example

More examples

"Mary would always niggle Tom over his lack of punctuation in text messages."

Etymology

First attested in 1599. Origin uncertain, but likely borrowed from dialectal Norwegian nigla (“to be stingy, to busy oneself with trifles”), ultimately from Old Norse hnøggr (“stingy; miserly”), related to Old English hnēaw (“stingy; niggardly”). More at niggard.

More for "niggle"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.