How to Use twiddle in a Sentence
twiddle
verb- She twiddled with her pen while she talked on the phone.
- Twiddle the knob on the telescope until things are in focus.
- Just twiddle the dial on the radio a bit for better reception.
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What if the Suns make a big move, while the Warriors twiddle their thumbs?
—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Feb. 2022
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The agents sat in bars and cafés twiddling their thumbs over smartphones.
—Karan Mahajan, The New Republic, 26 Mar. 2018
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The Eleven didn't twiddle their thumbs waiting around to open the scoring.
—Kevin Johnson, Indianapolis Star, 14 Apr. 2018
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That's a long time to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs.
—Evan Halper, latimes.com, 9 May 2017
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No wonder Elon Musk has the time to twiddle his thumbs on Twitter.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2022
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Still, the Peninsula, known for its fleet of 14 Rolls-Royce Phantoms, isn’t twiddling its thumbs.
—Christopher Cameron, Robb Report, 12 Nov. 2023
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Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel are waiting for teams to stop twiddling their thumbs.
—Ben Cohen, WSJ, 6 Feb. 2019
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There is a bee twiddling its legs on the moonlit dashboard of Bill Crawford’s pickup.
—Krista Stevens, Longreads, 9 Aug. 2023
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With only a first-round pick in the rounds 1-3, the normally active Roseman might be hard-pressed to twiddle his thumbs for two rounds.
—Jeff McLane, Philly.com, 23 Apr. 2018
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In today's world of smart phones, you'll never be left to twiddle your thumbs, so plan to arrive early and catch up on emails, etc.
—Stewart Welch, AL.com, 1 Nov. 2017
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No sitting around twiddling thumbs, waiting on God-knows-what.
—Breanna Edwards, The Root, 16 Aug. 2017
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Rather than sitting around twiddling your thumbs find ways to be more productive.
—Jeraldine Saunders, The Mercury News, 23 Mar. 2017
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The perception among some people that DNR employees twiddle their thumbs all day isn’t the case.
—Star Tribune, 29 Aug. 2020
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With all of those projects — and raising four children, with a fifth on the way — the Gaineses aren't exactly sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
—Candace Braun Davison, House Beautiful, 25 Apr. 2018
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But at least some of them aren’t doing the genetic equivalent of twiddling their thumbs.
—Quanta Magazine, 18 Aug. 2015
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For the second year in a row, Allen and other Chignik fishermen have mostly been left to twiddle their thumbs.
—Alex Hager, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Aug. 2019
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Players began twiddling the tips of their fingers in Yates’s direction, as if trying to cast a jinx.
—Seth Berkman, New York Times, 28 June 2016
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This death sets in play a baby-swapping plot hatched by the Brigadier, Kitty and Venetia’s mustache-twiddling father, who needs a male heir.
—Mary Pols, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2017
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Going on (is better than) sitting there twiddling your thumbs.
—Allison Stewart, chicagotribune.com, 26 July 2017
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Right about now, college sports fans are twiddling their thumbs and waiting anxiously for the start of football season just over 60 days away.
—Rana Cash, The Courier-Journal, 26 June 2019
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Trying to gather virtual friends in the game and have Nintendo-like fun felt largely like twiddling thumbs in a jail cell.
—Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 25 Jan. 2018
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But the scouts might spend some thumb-twiddling afternoons, as pitchers avoid throwing baseballs anywhere near Lewis.
—Mark Whicker, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2017
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On a humid, rainy afternoon, Susan had demonstrated how to dig a hole for my tomato plant and twiddle it with my fingers so that the roots would crumble.
—BostonGlobe.com, 24 July 2021
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Three conditioning treatments x three-minute soak each = nine minutes of twiddling your thumbs under the hot water.
—Carina Hsieh, Cosmopolitan, 6 Mar. 2015
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While athletes all over the world are twiddling their thumbs, she's been rushed off her feet trying to help them get through a period of relentless uncertainty.
—Don Riddell, CNN, 22 Apr. 2020
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Rocklin residents eager to enjoy the attractions promised by Quarry Park Adventures will have to twiddle their thumbs a bit longer – again.
—Kellen Browning, sacbee, 14 June 2018
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The pipeline development analysts cannot afford to sit twiddling their thumbs.
—Eric M. Stone, STAT, 5 June 2020
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'twiddle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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