If someone was said to have been “diddled”, would UK citizens think they have been cheated or molested?

48 comments

1. cheated.

   Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,

   Went to bed with his trousers on;

   One shoe off, and the other shoe on,

   Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.

2. Molested

3. Cheated

4. Depends on the context of the statement

5. Molested

   ‘He’s been diddling kids’

6. Cheated out of money. Kiddy fiddler means child molester

7. Traditionally, definitely the former.

   I’ve heard it innumerable times in the past to mean ‘cheated’

   Now, people more commonly say ‘scammed’ which is why ‘diddled’ is not often heard in that context.

8. We would know it as cheated but the response would be to make out we thought they meant molested.

9. Cheated, out of money. But I’ve heard that term in relation to…er…female self-love?

10. Usually cheated. But it would depend on the context it was used. If someone said someone is a kiddie didler we’d know what they meant.

11. Cheated although nobody ever says that so largely irrelevant.

12. Really depends on context I guess, but without context my mind goes straight to having been cheated.

    “He was diddled out of his inheritance by the shady solicitor”, for example.

13. Depends on how much Comedy Based Upon Deliberately Misunderstanding Something they were looking to extract from the encounter.

14. I think it depends on whether its about an adult or a child. If an adult has been diddled they’ve been cheated/scammed, if a child has been diddled it means molested. I feel dirty just typing that…

15. Cheated.

16. I think in UK “diddled” is more cheating, I usually hear “fiddled” when talking about molestation.

17. Cheated

18. Diddle = cheat
    Fiddle = on the register…

19. Diddle me this!

20. Cheated. If you used it to mean molested I’d probably think you meant fiddle.

21. Molested, or is that fiddled? I can’t remember

22. I didn’t know “diddled” means cheated in the UK.

    My first thought was Diddley Diddley doo as well as that song.

23. My first thought was cheated, but both work.

24. “diddled” – cheated

    “diddled with” – molested

25. Context. You wouldn’t say “They have been diddling” and expect people to know what you meant.

    “They have been diddling kids or they have been diddling their taxes.”

26. cheated.

    Fiddled with would be molested.

27. If someone told me they were diddled I’d definitely think they were molested.

28. I would normally take Diddled on it’s own as being diddled out of something e.g. cheated. But I also think that diddling does have a rarer sexual connotation as in diddling oneself in reference to masturbation, but that seems very dated like 1970 or 1980s to me.

    I have only really heard the slang for molestation as fiddled, as in kiddie fiddling (which is also quite a dated term really). However if people put kiddie diddling, I would know what they meant, even if I hadn’t seen it before.

29. UK – Cheated

30. Cheated. Diddled with, then the latter.

31. In context, 100% cheated. You couldn’t read all that and have even the vaguest impression that he was referring to molestation.

    Also **who the actual fuck is paying £9 for tea and a sarnie??**

32. Either based on context

33. Diddled is basically to be swindled mildly.

34. It’s about context tbh.
    Diddled out of ‘x’ =swindled
    Fiddle with/by person ‘x’ =molested

35. Fiddled – molested, Diddled – cheated out of something.

36. For me it’s cheated. I’m UK

37. Uk. ” I put £4.30 in the Metro Tram Ticket Machine and no ticket came out, I got diddled”

    ​

    Several times.

38. Diddled in my opinion is to be ripped off or cheated somehow

39. I was born and raised in the UK (London) and have never even heard of the word ‘diddled’? Yet scrolling seems to find that I’m the only one who hasn’t? 😅

40. I’d assume being cheated out of money or an object

41. Cheated.

42. You better go wite a song about how you defo don’t diddle kids

43. to me diddled has always meant “cheated” or “conned”

44. Diddled out of money. Fiddler of kids.

45. Definitely cheated. I can’t think of any time where I’ve ever heard diddled in the molestation context.

46. The priest diddled him: molestation.

    The priest diddled him out of £5000: cheated.

47. UK citizen here. I’d say cheated, but I’m in my 60s. Maybe younger folk will think differently.

48. Diddled = Molested