Tidder

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To treat with tenderness; fondle dialectal

    "Their doings now were jubilational— What quiet folks would call sensational. Their goodies they unpack excitedly, Their Common Grandsire greet delightedly, With gentle, sympathetic tiddering. When from his tree-top he called diddering, All "gramps," Wag said, are worth considering."

Example

More examples

"Their doings now were jubilational— What quiet folks would call sensational. Their goodies they unpack excitedly, Their Common Grandsire greet delightedly, With gentle, sympathetic tiddering. When from his tree-top he called diddering, All "gramps," Wag said, are worth considering."

Etymology

From Middle English tidren, from Old English tīdrian, tȳdrian (“to become weak or infirm; be frail”), from Proto-Germanic *tūdrijaną (“to become brittle or weak; exhaust”), from Proto-Germanic *tūdrijaz (“brittle; weak; exhausted”), equivalent to tid + -er. Related to Old English tiddre, tyddre, tēdre, tīdre, tȳdre (“weak; fragile”), West Frisian tear (“tender; gentle”), Dutch teder (“tender; fond; gentle; loving”), German Low German teder (“fine; delicate; sensitive; tender; weak”).

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