/ ˈdɪdl; NAmE / verb
[ vn ] diddle sb (out of sth) ( BrE , informal ) to get money or some advantage from sb by cheating them
SYN cheat
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WORD ORIGIN
early 19th cent.: probably from the name of Jeremy Diddler , a character in the farce Raising the Wind (1803) by the Irish dramatist James Kenney (1780–1849). Diddler constantly borrowed and failed to repay small sums of money: the name may be based on an earlier verb diddle walk unsteadily .