didlen.
/ˈdʌɪd(ə)l/ local.
A sharp triangular spade, used for clearing out ditches and watercourses; also a metal scoop or dredge fixed to the end of a long pole, used for a similar purpose.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > spade > other spades
sap1566
didle1580
wasp-spade1623
trenching gouge1653
loy1763
hodding-spadea1825
graff1875
graft1893
1580 T. Tusser Fiue Hundred Pointes Good Husbandrie (new ed.) f. 16v A didall and crome: for draining of ditches.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 244/1 A Didall and Crome to drain Ditches.
1710 D. Hilman Tusser Rediv. Didal, a triangular spade, as sharp as a knife, excellent to bank ditches, where the earth is light and pestered with a sedgy weed.
1787 in F. Grose Provinc. Gloss.
1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads (1884) xx. 148 We have ice ‘dydles’. They are large nets made of wire, at the end of a pole, with which we can scoop the broken pieces of ice up.
Derivatives
didle-man n. a didler.
ΚΠ
1490 Chamberl. Acc. in Kirkpatrick Relig. Orders Norwich (1845) 316 Paid to the didalmen and other labourers, for carrying the muck out of the said ditch [of Norwich Castle].
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
didlev.
/ˈdʌɪd(ə)l/ local.
1. transitive. To clean out the bed of (a river or ditch).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [verb (transitive)] > make trench or ditch > clean out bed of
didlea1825
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > preparation of land or soil > ditching or drainage > ditch [verb (intransitive)] > clean a ditch
didlea1825
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > preparation of land or soil > ditching or drainage > ditch [verb (transitive)] > clean ditch
dike1519
ditch1576
didlea1825
rit1825
neck1844
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) Didle, to clean the bottom of a river.
1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xvii. 124 The reach had been dydled out.
2. intransitive. To work with a didle or didling scoop.
ΚΠ
1803 W. Taylor in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) I. 471 The older theology of the reformers is so gone by..that I should despair of the patience to didle in their mud for pearl-muscles.
Derivatives
ˈdidler n.
ΚΠ
1835 1st Rep. Commissioners Munic. Corporations Eng. & Wales App. iv. 2465 in Parl. Papers (H.C. 116) XXV. 1 The Surveyor of Didlers [of Norwich] superintends the persons employed in cleansing the river.
1865 W. White Eastern Eng. I. 81 I..saw only a man who appeared to be hoeing the river bottom. He..was the dydler.
ˈdidling n.
ΚΠ
1842 Ann. Reg. 195 Messrs. Culley and Cossey lately built a didling boat.
1863 J. C. Morton Cycl. Agric. (new ed.) I. Didle (Norf., Suff.), to clean the bottom of a river with a didling scoop.
1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xv. (1884) 112 The dykes are kept clear, and the channel of the river deepened, by ‘dydling’... At the end of a long pole is a metal scoop, in the shape of a ring, with a network..attached. This is plunged into the river, and scraped along the bottom to the side, where it is lifted out and the semi-liquid mud poured on to the rond.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1490v.1803