fiddle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   play on a violin

   Zuckerman fiddled that song very nicely

2. 2
   noun

   A violin, a small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin, shoulder, chest or on the upper thigh and played with a bow (see also usage notes below).

   ...Of harpe & of salteriun. of fiðele & of coriun...

3. 3
   noun

   Any of various other bowed stringed instruments, particularly those of the violin family when played non-classically.

   The fiddle of these early times, however, was the viol and not our modern violin.

4. 4
   noun

   A violinist, or fiddler, in a band.

   He is first fiddle in the band.

5. 5
   noun

   A clown; an unserious person entertaining a group.

   You would not have your Son the Fiddle to every jovial Company.

6. 6
   noun

   Unskillful or unartful behavior, particularly when showy and superficially pleasing.

   There was some kind of fiddle going on at that company, and several of the directors were arrested.

7. 7
   noun

   Any rail or device that prevents items from sliding off a table, stove, etc. in rough water.

   The meal is served on special trays which slot into the arms of airline-type seats of the passenger coaches. The trays have fiddles for each of the plates, cups and glasses, and the crockery is so well-designed that it is seldom any of the contents get spilled.

8. 8
   noun

   A trifling amount.

   Done at a fiddle.

Etymology

From Middle English fithele, from Old English *fiþele, from Proto-West Germanic *fiþulā, from Proto-Germanic *fiþulǭ (“fiddle”), of uncertain etymology. Some contest that the Germanic terms are borrowed variations of Late Latin vitula (see viola); others contest that the word has a separate origin within Germanic languages, and still others believe that the Late Latin term for the stringed instrument is a borrowing from Germanic as a change of Latin t to Germanic þ is highly improbable, yet Germanic þ to Latin t is well documented (see troop, trousers, Teobaldo, etc.). Cognate with Old High Ge…