fiddle

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
In the heat and dust of Indian elections, trying to keep as fit as a fiddle is an onerous task.

View all »
Definitions (42)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun A violin.
  2. noun A member of the violin family.
  3. noun Nautical A guardrail used on a table during rough weather to prevent things from slipping off.
11 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (17)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (8)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • ‘Failing Judy’s concertina, the fiddle is the only thing. —  The Death-Cap Dancers - Gladys Mitchell - Bradley 59: 1981
  • There's a sense that a fiddle is a low-cost instrument meant for folk enjoyment whereas a violin is more costly and meant for more cultured usage. —  ReadABlog.com New Blogs and RSS Feeds
  • Dreissen's Americana fiddle is the one instrument that rams headlong up against the kora, shadow-boxes it, flies away on its own, returns, flirts, bumps heads, frisks its drawling, tangy, bowed notes against the pling and pluck of the rest. —  PopMatters
  • But the fiddle is a jealous instrument, and will not allow itself to be anyone's second instrument. —  Mandolin Cafe News
  • It is mathematical, geometrical, with every curve known to science, as hard to represent correctly as a boat or a fiddle--more so; and the delight of successful achievement is proportionately great. —  The History of "Punch"
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 214 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

violin ·  lute ·  guitar ·  banjo ·  harp ·  viol ·  lyre ·  cello ·  harmonica ·  accordion ·  trumpet ·  fife

Used in the same contextWord Family

fiddle:   fiddling
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English fidle, from Old English fithele.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also fidle; from Middle English fidel, fydyll, fedele, usually and properly with th, fithel, fithele, from Anglo-Saxon * fithele (not found, but the derivatives fithela, a fiddler, fithelere, a fiddler, fithelestre, a female fiddler, occur) = Dutch vedel, veel = Old High German fidula, Middle High German videle, videl, German fiedel = Icelandic fidhla = Old Swedish fidhla = Danish fiddel, a fiddle; apparently connected with Middle Latin vitula, vidula, a fiddle, whence also the Roman forms, Old French viole, viele, vielle, French viole (later English viol, and the modified Swedish Danish fiol-) Provencal viula, viola = Spanish Portuguese viola = Italian viola (whence English viola), diminutive violino (whence English violin, etc.). The Middle Latin vitula, which was sometimes called vitula jocosa, the merry viol, is referred by Diez to L. vitulari, celebrate a festival, keep holiday (orig. perhaps ‘sacrifice a calf,’ from vitulus, a calf: see veal). It is possible that the Middle Latin vitula is an accommodation form of the Teutonic word; cf. Late Latin harpa, Italian arpa. F. harpe, etc., harp, of Teutonic origin. Another derivation, from Latin fidicula, commonly plural fidiculæ, a small stringed instrument, a small lute or cithern (diminutive of fides, a stringed instrument, a lute, lyre, cithern), hardly agrees with the Teutonic and not at all with the Roman forms.
  2. Early modern English also fidle; from fiddle, n.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈfɪdl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

maximum · drachma · metonymy · Rutenberg · trimester

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich