A UK dialect word with two distinct regional senses: to pilfer or steal small items (general dialectal), and to squirm or fidget (East Anglia).
A UK dialect word with two distinct regional senses: to pilfer or steal small items (general dialectal), and to squirm or fidget (East Anglia). Both senses are highly localized and no longer in common use. The stealing sense fits into a broader dialectal tradition of soft-sounding words for petty theft, where the word's gentle sound almost accidentally lightens the moral weight of what it describes.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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The child had niffled a handful of sweets from the jar when nobody was watching.
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An old British dialect word with two quite different meanings depending on where you are. In East Anglia it means to squirm or wriggle, while more broadly in British dialect use it can mean to pilfer or steal small things — the kind of petty pilfering that's hard to catch. Both senses are now rare outside of dialect literature, but niffle has a satisfying sound that makes it easy to imagine these meanings.
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(UK, dialect) To pilfer.
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(UK, dialect) (East Anglia) To squirm.
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