niggle, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

niggle v.

also neggle, nigle

[ety. unknown; probable link to SE niggle, to trifle, to play with, although OED first citation (1616) is 50 years subseq. to the sl. use in Harman (1567); the use of tonygle in Harman is a misprint]

to have sexual intercourse.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: to nygle to have to do with a woman carnally.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: If we niggle, or mill a bowsing Ken.
1621		Jonson Gypsies Metamorphosed 39: A deuills-ars-a-peakian / borne firste at Niglington / bred up at ffilchington / boorded at Tappington / bedded at Wappington.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush II i: hub.: How long / Has she been here? snap.: Lo-lo-long enough to be ni-ni-niggled, and she ha’ go-go-go-good luck.
1637		Dekker Canting Song in English Villainies (8th edn) O: And wapping Dell, that niggles well, and takes loure for her hire.
1661		a catch in Wardroper (1969) 225: But oh, how she neggled him, neggled him, / Oh, how she neggled him all the night long!
1674		‘The Beggars Curse’ in Head Canting Academy (1674) 14: [as cit. 1608].
1696		D’Urfey Comical Hist. of Don Quixote Pt III II i: Icod, I’ll niggle him so he was ne’er so niggled.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 40: And niggled every Trojan Spouse. / [...] / For every one to make a Cuckold.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 111: To purge my Sins, / And buy me Pins, / I’ve nigled an Old Parson.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1832		Satirist (London) 8 Jan. 13/2: The Paris wits are giggling, O! / At the niggling, figgling, wriggling, O! / [...] / While the good old dance is jiggling, O!
1925		E. Field ‘A French Crisis’ in Facetiae Americana 19: She’d ‘Come the Caster,’ niggle, jerk, and ‘Hear the Nightingale.’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 135: Niggle. – To have sexual intercourse.

In derivatives

niggling (n.) (also nigling)

1. sexual intercourse.

1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: Niggling, company keeping with a woman.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 39: Nigling, company keeping with a woman: this word is not vsed now, but wapping.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: Wapping and niggling is all one.
1612		Dekker ‘The Canting Song’ O per se O (1967) 307: A queer cove of Deuceville / Did dock a dell in Turvey. / He gave her cheats and duds and lower / But his niggling was but scurvy.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew II i: The Autum-Mort finds better sport / In bowsing than in nigling.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Niggling, accompanying with a Woman.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Nigling, accompanying with a Woman.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Nigling [...] accompanying with a woman.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Niggling [...] accompanying with a woman.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. ‘slowly abstracting articles from the bulk-heads, or projecting fronts of shops, which at that period [i.e. late 17C] were open’ [double entendres of ballad suggest that this def., offered by the Sporting World, may be a misreading, or deliberate self-censorship of sense 1].

1845

late 17C ballad q. in Sporting World 19 Apr. 49/2: And boozing and niggling. / And prigging and higgling.