did diddly squat nyt

“Did diddly squat” is a slangy way of saying “did absolutely nothing” or “did nothing of value.”

What “did diddly squat” means

• “Diddly squat” (also written “diddly-squat” or “diddlysquat”) means an insignificant, tiny, or totally worthless amount—often literally “nothing at all.”

• So if someone says “they did diddly squat,” they mean the person (or institution) did nothing helpful, useful, or meaningful.

In a sentence:

“The committee met for three hours and did diddly squat about the actual problem.”

Where the phrase comes from

• “Diddly squat” is American slang that grew out of an older form, “doodly-squat,” which shows up in print around the 1930s.

• Over time, “diddly-squat” became the more common version and is now several times more frequent in print than “doodly-squat.”

• Etymology notes connect it to playful nonsense words like “doodle”/“diddle” plus “squat,” with later associations to defecation making it feel a bit vulgar but still widely acceptable as mild slang.

About “did diddly squat nyt”

If you saw or searched “did diddly squat nyt,” it’s most likely:

• Someone criticizing the New York Times (NYT), implying “the NYT did diddly squat” on some issue—i.e., the paper did effectively nothing meaningful.
• Or a forum / social post using that phrase as a jab or headline, leaning on the common meaning “did nothing at all.”

In all of those contexts, the core idea stays the same: “did diddly squat” = did nothing that counts.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.