fiddle
Part of speech: noun
verb
intj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
natural-sciences
nautical
transport
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 German fidula (German Fiedel), Middle Dutch vedele (Dutch vedel, veel), Old Norse fiðla (Icelandic fiðla, Danish fiddel, Norwegian fela, Swedish fela).
The change from /ðl/ to /dl/ in modern English is regular; compare Bedlam, staddle, swaddle (in brothel, it was prevented; see that entry for discussion).
Inflected forms:
form: fiddles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: fiddles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: fiddling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: fiddled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: fiddled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: 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).
pos: noun
examples: ...Of harpe & of salteriun. of fiðele & of coriun...
Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia an' the Devil deals the cards...
When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like that, it's a violin.
gloss: Any of various other bowed stringed instruments, particularly those of the violin family when played non-classically.
pos: noun
tags: proscribed
usually
examples: The fiddle of these early times, however, was the viol and not our modern violin.
gloss: A violinist, or fiddler, in a band.
pos: noun
examples: He is first fiddle in the band.
gloss: Something resembling a violin, or fiddle, in shape
pos: noun
gloss: Something resembling a violin, or fiddle, in shape
pos: noun
gloss: Something resembling a violin, or fiddle, in shape
pos: noun
gloss: A clown; an unserious person entertaining a group.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: You would not have your Son the Fiddle to every jovial Company.
gloss: Unskillful or unartful behavior, particularly when showy and superficially pleasing.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: There was some kind of fiddle going on at that company, and several of the directors were arrested.
Says Bevin: 'I want peace... and we shan't get it unless we deal with one another as friends. I will be a party to no fiddles.'
I know you'll think this is one of my fiddles. At my last parish we raffled a horse and trap,... a clothes horse and a mousetrap.
gloss: Unskillful or unartful behavior, particularly when showy and superficially pleasing.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: That parameter setting is just a fiddle to make the lighting look right.
gloss: Unskillful or unartful behavior, particularly when showy and superficially pleasing.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: Most people are quite careful about buying appliances. When looking at TVs for instance you might look for a particular brand, peruse the definition and colors on the screen, and maybe even have a fiddle with the remote.
gloss: Any rail or device that prevents items from sliding off a table, stove, etc. in rough water.
pos: noun
tags: especially
examples: 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.
gloss: An arrest warrant.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
slang
gloss: A watchman's rattle.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
slang
gloss: A trifling amount.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
slang
examples: Done at a fiddle.
gloss: To play the fiddle or violin, particularly in a folk or country style.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: to fiddle while Rome burns
Themistocles […] said he could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great city.
gloss: To fraudulently manipulate (records, accounts, etc.) in order to cheat or swindle.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: Fred was sacked when the auditors caught him fiddling the books.
gloss: To fidget or play; to fuss; to idly amuse oneself, to act aimlessly, idly, or frivolously, particularly out of nervousness or restlessness; see also fiddle with.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Sit up straight and stop fiddling!
Loke you fydell nat with your handes whan your maister speketh to you.
[…] talking, and fiddling with their hats and feathers […]
Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo with warm surprise and bowed and scraped in obscene servility as though Milo were some elegant marquis.
gloss: Synonym of tinker (“to make small adjustments or improvements”); see also fiddle with.
pos: verb
tags: informal
intransitive
examples: I don't exactly know how to fix this lawnmower; I'm really just fiddling.
gloss: To do odd jobs for money.
pos: verb
tags: UK
intransitive
obsolete
slang
examples: A cake-seller told me that a little while before I saw him a lad of twelve or so had consumed a shilling’s worth of cakes and pastry, as he had got a shilling by “fiddling;” not, be it understood, by the exercise of any musical skill, for “fiddling,” among the initiated, means the holding of horses, or the performing of any odd jobs.
gloss: Synonym of fiddlesticks or euphemism for fuck.
pos: intj
examples: Oh, fiddle. I left my whip in the stable.
Derived words: Apache fiddle
bass fiddle
bull fiddle
face as long as a fiddle
face like a fiddle
face made of a fiddle
fiddleback
fiddleback wood
fiddle beetle
fiddle block
fiddle-boat
fiddle-bow
fiddle-brained
fiddle brake
fiddle-case
fiddlecome
fiddle-come-faddle
fiddledeedee
fiddle-dock
fiddle-drill
fiddle-fabricant
fiddle face
fiddle-faced
fiddle factor
fiddle-faddle
fiddle-fancier
fiddle-fish
fiddle-flanked
fiddle-footed
fiddle-grass
fiddlehead
fiddle-holder
fiddle idol
fiddleist
fiddleleaf
fiddle-lipped
fiddle-lore
fiddle-lover
fiddle-make
fiddle-maker
fiddle-making
fiddlement
fiddleneck
fiddle-pattern
fiddle-patterned
fiddler
fiddler crab
fiddler's money
fiddlery
fiddles
fiddle-scraping
fiddle-shaped
fiddlesome
fiddlestick
fiddlesticks
fiddlestring
fiddlewood
fiddley
fiddle yard
fiddley-did
fiddliness
fiddlist
fiddly
fine as a fiddle
first fiddle
fit as a fiddle
guitar fiddle
hang up one's fiddle
hang up one's fiddle when one comes home
Hardanger fiddle
Hardanger-fiddle
horsehead fiddle
keyed fiddle
lead fiddle
macaroni fiddle
on the fiddle
phonofiddle
play first fiddle
play second fiddle
play someone like a bass fiddle
play someone like a fiddle
play third fiddle
Scotch fiddle
second fiddle
spike fiddle
taro-patch fiddle
there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle
troubadour fiddle
Welsh fiddle
wheel fiddle
Translations: