fiddle
Pronunciation: /ˈfɪd(ə)l/
The English word “fiddle” has 20 meanings listed here.
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).
- Any of various other bowed stringed instruments, particularly those of the violin family when played non-classically.
- A violinist, or fiddler, in a band.
- A dock (Rumex pulcher) with leaves supposed to resemble the musical instrument.
- A long pole pulled by a draft animal to drag loose straw, hay, etc.
- A rack for drying pottery after glazing.
- A clown; an unserious person entertaining a group.
- A scam; a fraud or swindle.
- A workaround; a quick and less than perfect solution for some flaw or problem.
- An act of tinkering, playing around, or fidgeting with something.
- Any rail or device that prevents items from sliding off a table, stove, etc. in rough water.
- An arrest warrant.
- A watchman's rattle.
- A trifling amount.
verb
- To play the fiddle or violin, particularly in a folk or country style.
- To fraudulently manipulate (records, accounts, etc.) in order to cheat or swindle.
- 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.
- Synonym of tinker (“to make small adjustments or improvements”); see also fiddle with.
- To do odd jobs for money.
interjection
- Synonym of fiddlesticks or euphemism for fuck.
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…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.