Fiddle \Fid"dle\, n. [OE. fidele, fithele, AS. fi?ele; akin to D. vedel, OHG. fidula, G. fiedel, Icel. fi?la, and perh. to E. viol. Cf. Viol.]

1. (Mus.) A stringed instrument of music played with a bow; a violin; a kit.

2. (Bot.) A kind of dock (Rumex pulcher) with fiddle-shaped leaves; -- called also fiddle dock.

3. (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, an ornament on a ship's bow, curved like the volute or scroll at the head of a violin.

Fiddle pattern, a form of the handles of spoons, forks, etc., somewhat like a violin.

Scotch fiddle, the itch. (Low)

To play first, or second, fiddle, to take a leading or a subordinate part. [Colloq.]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)