fiddly
fiddly — adjective
- fiddlypositive
- fiddliercomparative
- fiddliestsuperlative
1. hard to use, make, or repair because the item or its pieces are tiny and need ca
hard to use, make, or repair because the item or its pieces are tiny and need careful handling with your fingers.
Yuki struggled with the fiddly clasp on her new necklace.
collocation: fiddly clasp
Replacing the tiny battery in that old watch was fiddly work.
collocation: fiddly work
The model car kit had dozens of fiddly little parts to glue.
Amara found the fiddly buttons on her winter coat almost impossible to fasten.
These small screws are so fiddly that Henrik dropped three of them on the floor.
- tricky
more general; can describe any difficult situation, including mental puzzles
- finicky
can describe a fussy person as well as an object requiring excessive care
- awkward
focuses on physical inconvenience of shape or position, not necessarily small size
- delicate
emphasises fragility and the risk of breaking, not smallness of parts
- straightforward
simple to handle or complete, with no small or tricky parts involved
用法筆記
Typically describes mechanical tasks (repairing watches, assembling models, sewing on tiny buttons) rather than intellectual challenges. Common in informal British English; less frequent in American English.