whiddle

English

Verb

whiddle (third-person singular simple present whiddles, present participle whiddling, simple past and past participle whiddled)

  1. (slang) To inform on someone.
    • 2003, Brian Penton, The Inheritors, page 475:
      He said he only wanted one thing — if I'd chuck Gursey out again, in case he went whiddling to the colonel.
  2. (obsolete, thieves' cant) To shine.
    • 1845, Lincoln Fortescue, The Life and Adventures of Jack Sheppard, page 429:
      Old Noll is whiddling bright, / The dull world is asleep, / 'Tis a high spiced Toby night, / Let's in our saddles leap; […]
    • 2019, Simon Barnard, James Hardy Vaux's 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang:
      OLIVER WHIDDLES: The moon shines. According to his physical description in the Black Books, Oliver whiddled on Hugh Smith's left arm.

References

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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