The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fiddle \Fid"dle\ (f[i^]d"d'l), n. [OE. fidele, fithele, AS. fi[eth]ele; akin to D. vedel, OHG. fidula, G. fiedel, Icel. fi[eth]la, and perh. to E. viol. Cf. Viol.]
(Mus.) A stringed instrument of music played with a bow; a violin; a kit.
(Bot.) A kind of dock ( Rumex pulcher) with fiddle-shaped leaves; -- called also fiddle dock.
-
(Naut.) A rack or frame of bars connected by strings, to keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather.
--Ham. Nav. Encyc.Fiddle beetle (Zo["o]l.), a Japanese carabid beetle ( Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body.
Fiddle block (Naut.), a long tackle block having two sheaves of different diameters in the same plane, instead of side by side as in a common double block.
--Knight.Fiddle bow, fiddlestick.
Fiddle fish (Zo["o]l.), the angel fish.
Fiddle head, See fiddle head in the vocabulary.
Fiddle pattern, a form of the handles of spoons, forks, etc., somewhat like a violin.
Scotch fiddle, the itch. (Low)
To play first fiddle, or To play second fiddle, to take a leading or a subordinate part. [Colloq.]
Usage examples of "to 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.
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.
Maybe Jimmy Kilmartin had longed to play second fiddle for a long time so that he could throw ideas around and not have to feel silly if they came to nothing?
Perhaps it's because he has to play second fiddle to this powerful advocate that Claude is for ever on the lookout for alternative company, a pursuit which brings little but embarrassment to himself and those around him.
Who would agree to play second fiddle to a spreadsheet of profits and losses on computer software?