Fiddle
Fiddle (fid"d'l) , noun
[Old English fidele, fithele, Anglo-Saxon fieele; akin to Dutch vedel, Old High German fidula, German fiedel, Icelandic fiela, and perh. to English viol. Compare Viol.]
1.
(Music) A stringed instrument of music played with a bow; a violin; a kit.
2.
(Botany) A kind of dock (Rumex pulcher) with fiddle-shaped leaves; -- called also fiddle dock.
3.
(Nautical) A rack or frame of bars connected by strings, to keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather. — Ham. Nav. Encyc
Collocations (7)
Fiddle beetle (Zoology) , a Japanese carabid beetle (Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body.
Fiddle block (Nautical) , a long tackle block having two sheaves of different diameters in the same plane, instead of side by side as in a common double block. — Knight
Fiddle bow , fiddlestick.
Fiddle fish (Zoology) , the angel fish.
Fiddle head , See fiddle head in the vocabulary.
Fiddle pattern , a form of the handles of spoons, forks, etc., somewhat like a violin.
To play first fiddle or To play second fiddle , to take a leading or a subordinate part. [Colloquial]
Fiddle , intransitive verb
1.
To play on a fiddle.
Themistocles... said he could not fiddle, but he could make a small town a great city.
2.
To keep the hands and fingers actively moving as a fiddler does; to move the hands and fingers restlessy or in busy idleness; to trifle.
Talking, and fiddling with their hats and feathers.
Fiddle , transitive verb
To play (a tune) on a fiddle.