Dictionary

fiddler en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɪdlə(ɹ)/
• /ˈfɪdələ(ɹ)/
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English fithelere, from Old English fiþelere, from *fiþele. By surface analysis, fiddl(e) + -er. * (capstan-house): So called because the fiddle would sometimes be played to cheer the sailors working there.

Meanings

1. One who plays the fiddle.
2. One who fiddles; a cheat.
   • We were the self-controlled, cautious, nifty merchants, decorous fiddlers of accounts, hoarders of wealth, excellent bribers, family and community creatures governed by manners. 2005, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The drama of my life (in The Independent online, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-drama-of-my-life-483792.html)
3. One who fiddles or tweaks.
   • The community of radio amateurs—trespassing fiddlers on the cutting edge of technological possibilities—prefigured the geek community that was to inhabit Silicon Valley 50 years later. 2012, Fiorenza Belussi, Udo Hermann Staber, Managing Networks of Creativity, page 92:
4. A burrowing crab of the genus Gelasimus, of many species. The male has one claw very much enlarged, and often holds it in a position similar to that in which a musician holds a fiddle.
5. The common European sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos); so called because it habitually wags its tail up and down resembling the back and forth movement of a fiddler.
6. A large species of cicada, Macrotristria angularis, of eastern Australia; cherry nose.
7. (UK, obsolete, slang) A coin of little value: a sixpence or a farthing.
8. (slang) The capstan-house on a steamer.
   • Whereupon you shake hands with him […] and make room for him by your side in the "Fiddler," when the pleasant time of night is come, and the stewardess is tucking up the ladies, and putting oranges and other goodies under their pillows, and the menfolk assemble in the capstan house to smoke their last cigar. 1877, Official Guide and Album of the Cunard Steamship Company, page 95:

Forms

Deriveds

fiddler crab · kiddy fiddler · bull fiddler · drunk as a fiddler · Hardanger fiddler · bass fiddler · pay the fiddler · Fiddler's Ferry · Fiddler on the Roof

Synonyms

fiddleist · fiddlist

Translations (22)

ru скрипа́ч (one who plays the fiddle) · sv fiolspelman (one who plays the fiddle) · gd fìdhlear (one who plays the fiddle) · nl speelman (one who plays the fiddle) · fi viulisti (one who plays the fiddle) · ga fidléir (one who plays the fiddle) · ka მევიოლინე (one who plays the fiddle) · bg цигулар (one who plays the fiddle) · sv spelman (one who plays the fiddle) · eo violonisto (one who plays the fiddle) · ota كامنچهجی (one who plays the fiddle) · pl skrzypek (one who plays the fiddle) · nn spelemann (one who plays the fiddle) · pt rabequista (one who plays the fiddle) · hu hegedűs (one who plays the fiddle) · cs houslista (one who plays the fiddle) · de Geiger (one who plays the fiddle) · pt rabequeiro (one who plays the fiddle) · nl vedelaar (one who plays the fiddle) · nb spellemann (one who plays the fiddle) · nb spillemann (one who plays the fiddle) · da spillemand (one who plays the fiddle)