online medical dictionary | definition of fiddle

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

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

3. A rack or frame of bars connected by strings, to keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather.

<zoology> Fiddle beetle, 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. To play first, or second, fiddle, to take a leading or a subordinate part.

Origin: OE. Fidele, fithele, AS. Fiele; akin to D. Vedel, OHG. Fidula, G. Fiedel, Icel. Fila, and perh. To E. Viol. Cf. Viol.

(01 Mar 1998)