Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music English) A fiddle part in harmony to the first fiddle. 2 (context music English) The person playing second fiddle. 3 (context idiomatic English) A sidekick or subordinate, or the role of such a person.
WordNet
n. someone who serves in a subordinate capacity or plays a secondary role [syn: second banana]
a secondary role or function; "he hated to play second fiddle to anyone"
Wikipedia
Second Fiddle may refer to:
- Second Fiddle (1923 film), a 1923 silent film comedy-drama
- Second Fiddle (1939 film), a 1939 American musical romance film
- Second Fiddle (1957 film), a 1957 British comedy film
- Second Fiddle (novel), by Mary Wesley
- "Second Fiddle", an episode of British television series Lovejoy
- Second Fiddle (song), a song recorded by Kay Starr that was #40 on the U.S. charts in 1956
- Second violin section of an orchestra
Second Fiddle is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Lisa Gastoni and Richard Wattis. The film was produced by Robert Dunbar for Act Films Ltd. It was the final film of prolific director Maurice Elvey.
Second Fiddle was missing from the BFI National Archive, and was listed as one of the British Film Institute's " 75 Most Wanted" lost films. BFI's update on the list reveals that the film is now found and commercially available on DVD from mid-2015.
Second Fiddle (1988) is a best-selling novel by British author Mary Wesley.
Second Fiddle is a 1939 American musical romance film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Sonja Henie, Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee and Lyle Talbot. The score was composed by Irving Berlin. A Hollywood publicity agent falls in love with a new actress he helped to discover. The film parodies the extensive search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. It is sometimes known as Irving Berlin's Second Fiddle.
Second Fiddle is a 1923 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Frank Tuttle and distributed by W. W. Hodkinson. It stars Glenn Hunter and is an early appearance as a lead by actress Mary Astor. A copy of the film is in the Stanford Theatre Foundation collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
"Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar)" is a single by American country music artist Jean Shepard. Released in April 1964, it was later released on the 1966 album, Heart, We Did All We Could. The song reached #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
Usage examples of "second fiddle".
She always gets furious if she has to play second fiddle to me and yesterday I was certainly first 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.
Yet Jefferson's second fiddle, I always thought, made the better music.
How glad I was I insisted upon playing second fiddle: even so, he put me to the blush.
Good chaps, really, though I'm not mad for Jean-Marie Francoeur, the leader, but Achille Moraillon, the second fiddle, keeps him from getting too pompous.
He hated playing second fiddle to Franklin, and by the year's end, to judge by a letter written to James Warren, Franklin's self-indulgent, self-serving ways had become nearly more than Adams could bear, for though he mentioned no name, it was obvious whom he meant.
Speckle John, who by 1922 was definitely my second fiddle, used to try to advise me about her, and his advice was an old woman's.