Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic intransitive English) To play a subsidiary or subordinate role to someone or something else.
Usage examples of "play second fiddle".
She always gets furious if she has to play second fiddle to me and yesterday I was certainly first fiddle.
From the very start, Jeremy had been doomed to play second fiddle.
And whoever she married was always going to play second fiddle to Jonathan Pritts.
I am not of the Captain's standard, but with some practice I believe I could play second fiddle to him without too much discredit.
He insisted on my staying for lunch, and as we ate beneath the moose heads, word of his appointment penetrated to various corners of the state, and his phone began jangling, with citizens from the western slope of the Rockies- demanding to know if they were to form part of the twin celebrations, or if they were as usual to play second fiddle to the greater concentrations of population along the front range.
He was a quiet man, content always to play second fiddle to his friend.
I was very much mistaken in supposing I could play second fiddle to such a man and I shall have to find some decent excuse.