Verb (colloquial).—1. To trifle, especially with the hands.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 13 July. Where all the ladies walked, talking
and fiddling with their hats and feathers, and changing and trying
one another’s by one another’s heads, and laughing.
1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 2. He took a pipe in his hand,
and fiddled with it till he broke it.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Fiddle (v.) ... also to spend
a person’s time about matters of small or no importance.
1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. iii. That second charger of Mr.
Harperley’s is smart, but they’ve had him fiddling about so long in
the school, he’s most likely forgot how to gallop.