diddle [E19th] In the farce Raising the Wind (1803) by the Irish dramatist James Kenney, the character Jeremy Diddler constantly borrows and fails to repay small sums of money. The informal term diddle, ‘to swindle or cheat’, appeared soon after the play’s production, and is probably testimony to the impact the character made. The name Diddler may be based on an earlier word diddle (more often daddle) meaning ‘to walk unsteadily’.