Well, that was a bit of fun. The word was particularly tough to define (and guess) because it seemingly has no basis. (see below for citations) Before we get to the results, I am going to tackle the commentary, for reasons which I’m sure are or will become evident.

The first order of business would be tiddlywinks! As Curuinor pointed out (at least he got something right), the proper terminology for a tiddlywinks counter is… a wink. Here is the official usegroup FAQ for those that care. (see Subject: 5. What do all these silly words mean?) In the interests of full disclosure, I did find one resource that gives tiddly, and more to the point tiddledy, as obsolete terms for the playing piece.* (Of more interest (to me) is that the “shooter” is called a “squidger”. Now that would have made a fine hogwash® word.)

After receiving Aramis’ definition (l), I also got the following from olly: small plastic discs used as an instrument for flicking other small plastic discs into a cup; and this from ASp: Playing pieces used in the children's board game Tiddledywinks (she’s pretty sure that’s what they were called, but then she (like me) is old); and of course Milo’s entry is also related, albeit different(!).

*Even so, definition l) loses out due to its faux etymology.

[I must insert here an aside to Jackie: could you explain to me how you envision playing tiddlywinks with dice?? I think it would take more than a genius! (In fairness though, the Yahtze people did come out with a dice version of Texas Hold‘em.)]

Now, as to the results, you will see that there was really no contest in the voting as tsuwm (four(4) votes) snapped out of a long losing streak with his finely crafted d). Honorable mention to TEd and Aramis, each of whom garnered two votes. And shanks, with inestimable reasoning, broke up the hogmaster’s shutout (but I probably should shoulder some of the blame myself for ongoing commentary). I'd also like to give BranShea a nod -- I think she's got the hang of the game now, and she collected 1+ votes.

Finally, the voting results:

a) the small caps which lower over the upright columns supporting harp lamp shade holders. [Sparteye]

b) a quick snort at the time the sun goes over the yardarm. "Care for a little tiddledies?" [TEd] olly, musick

c) intricate scrollwork and rosettes added in the latter stages of building of gothic cathedrals for the purpose of fine-tuning the acoustics. [Faldage] pennyless

d) knick-knacks, gewgaws, gimcracks; oddments [tsuwm] BranShea, Faldage, Sparteye, Curuinor :-Þ

e) [from Eastern Papua New Guinean Pidgin English] obnoxious child [olly] etaoin

f) [Scots] Haggis droppings [ASp] (tsuwm voted for this via PM)

g) a fun Mensa game much like tiddlywinks but played with dice. [Milo] Jackie

h) glossy fringes and tassels [BranShea] ÅΓα╥┐↕§

i) like Puck, a spirit of mischief (originally Lancastrian dialect). [shanks] TEd

j) [Old Norse] a practitioner of sleight-of-hand. [musick]

k) healthiness lasting into old age, from dialectal 'tid', meaning 'fresh' or 'tender', and OE 'eald', or oldness. [Curuinor]

l) [<ME tydle + dye] chips used in a game that evolved into (modern form) 'tiddlywinks' [Aramis] ASp , themilum

m) soft flexible ice or chunks of floating ice (origin unknown) [UAD] shanks



oh, the Unidentified Authorizing Dictionary was, as previously noted, Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary – Unabridged

Here are some citations for you.

Woho! That's all very nice mr. Hogmaster. But were we not a little bit fooled by 'flexible ice' in this .
Ice is flexible , always , meaning it bends. That's why you can skate on ice that officially is too thin to go on when you keep your speed up. It moves like a wave.(scary!)
But what are called tiddledies as I understand from the citations are chunks of floating ice which in themselves are not flexible but thicker chunks of broken ice. I could be wrong about this but we used to jump those as kids untill we were found out and forbidden.If you had put the chunks of floating ice only, the guess would have been a lot easier I think. Not that it was no fun. It was.
.

I wish I could give you the link to the M-W def'n, but it's a premium service; but note the placement of the "or" therein.

-joe (flexible OR chunks) friday

Well , it's O.K. That means then that going over thin ice is running tiddledies too. Understood.

And as it was not very nice to start with being
criticizering, I want to add that it was nice and very amusing and interesting. That Themilum was right with D. + H. It was fine. So next time (if there will be)I'll wait at least eight hours with my comment so that the West can catch up on time. And all the definitions gave a lot of fun considering.

All tiddlywinksy defintions were lost to me, because the game I know as a child's game under a different name. I could of course not look up the tiddlywink word in a dictionary.
So good morning and thanks.

when I spotted J's running commentary, I of course hied myself off to Mrs. B's d. sure enuf, there is tiddledies:

(tid'el-dez) n.pl. chunks of floating ice

-ron o.

I was also amused that milo got [just] these two right in his analysis.

and I had to accent defintions above because this is probably my most common typo; so much so that I now almost always double-check the word whenever I use it. there just seems to be something about that middle-i...

-joe (def'n has *zero Is) friday

Two is dfntly (@!@) more
than Zero....still.

I would not be able to guess a single one of them out.

I of course hied myself off to Mrs. B's d. sure enuf, there is tiddledies:

(tid'el-dez) n.pl. chunks of floating ice

Really?? Well, what do you know! I don't own a Mrs. Byrne, nor did I even attempt to locate one!

Ah, but it did not lose out entirely!

The two-point cake icing is a nice bonus over vindication from the opening analysis. That the rumoured inventor of definition F, which indeed smacks of haggis being alive, had his real definition emerge among the two survivors was almost enough alone to make one smug.

But credit (and appreciation) is owed to the HM's deft handling of the 'similar definition race'. This was another fine contest.

Hey, you don't accept changed definitions? You can clearly see that my last edit, containing the changed definition to the right answer, was before the sennight was over. If you wanted to know the reasoning, I just started looking for definitions that would be implausible as OED and unrelated to tiddlywinks, and that was the one.

no, especially not after a lapse of nearly 24 hrs.

edit: and very especially after a comment like:

edit²: and really very especially when it would cost me a vote!

-joe (autocracy 'R us) friday

One thing for sure. Those tiddledies won't wash away easy. Whenever I'll see icecubes floating in a drink it'll be tiddledies.
.