fiddly

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Requiring dexterity to operate.

   The buttons on the tiny mobile phone were too fiddly.

2. 2
   adj

   Having many small bits or embellishments.

   See, Barbados, like certain other fiddly little islands— Antigua, Saint Lucia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain, Australia— is filled with a genus of hotspurs fiercely dedicated to motoring on the wrong side of the road.

3. 3
   adj

   Of or relating to fiddling or fidgeting.

   I can divide my movements into two types: gross motor and fine motor (in other words, large movements and small, fiddly movements) and, as I have already described, I have far more problems with the latter than the former.

4. 4
   adj

   Pertaining to occasional under-the-table work by people who receive unemployment benefits

   Because benefit dependence was understood to confine people to poverty ('bend the rules - you've got to in this world cause of the pittance you get off the government') and because doing fiddly work indicated a commitment to self-reliance ('at least they're working') it was widely condoned.

Etymology

From fiddle + -y, from the verb.