piggle

Etymology

Uncertain. Attested since the nineteenth century. Compare niggle, fiddle.

piggle means A long-handled fork for mixing or digging. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

noun

A long-handled fork for mixing or digging.“A heap of it is then placed upon an inclined platform, under a small fall of water, and repeatedly stirred with a piggle and shovel […]”

To dig or uproot; to scrape.“I took my revenge on th' round-house, for I piggled all th' plaster off o' the walls that I could […]”
To toy or fiddle.“Then all nature was presently converted into an object for microscopic study, so that everything, whether near or far, must be piggled at and made clear to the utmost limit of human power.”
To cause to worry, to make uncomfortable; niggle.“BUDD. Get up yourself, and shut up, too! You have piggled me enough, you old smooty-snoot!”
To worry about minor points.“But of what value is all that piggling, niggling, — you call the little thing piggling, niggling?”