Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who plays a fiddle, violin, or some similar instrument; a violinist.
- noun A sixpence.
- noun In the United States, a fiddler-crab.
- noun The common sandpiper, Tringoides hypoleucus, so called from its habit of balancing the body as if on a pivot.
- noun A fish, Trygonorhina fasciata, a member of the family Rhinobatidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who plays on a fiddle or violin.
- noun (Zoöl.) 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, hence the name; -- called also
fiddler crab ,calling crab ,soldier crab , andfighting crab . - noun (Zoöl.) The common European sandpiper (
Tringoides hypoleucus ); -- so called because it continually oscillates its body. - noun (Zoöl.) See
Fiddler , n., 2.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who plays the
fiddle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who manipulates in a nervous or unconscious manner
- noun a musician who plays the violin
- noun an unskilled person who tries to fix or mend
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fiddler.
Examples
-
Twelfth day the fiddler lays his head in the lap of some one of the wenches, and the _mainstyr fiddler_ asks who such a maid, or such a maid, naming all the girls one after another, shall marry, to which he answers according to his own whim, or agreeable to the intimacies he has taken notice of during the time of merriment, and whatever he says is absolutely depended upon as an oracle; and if he couple two people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed the mirth; this they call "cutting off the fiddler's head," for after this he is dead for a whole year.
A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide John Ashton
-
Power of Music, "the street-corner fiddler is identified in the poem's opening line as" An Orpheus!
-
She calls the fiddler, and the bass player, and the drummer, and dancers, and whoever else is around, to do their one thing, make their one contribution to the bigger sound.
Expecting Rain 2009
-
She calls the fiddler, and the bass player, and the drummer, and dancers, and whoever else is around, to do their one thing, make their one contribution to the bigger sound.
Expecting Rain 2009
-
Despite their propensity for dishonesty, the name fiddler crab comes from the fact that while waving their big claw to attract females they look like they are playing the violin.
innovations-report 2008
-
Despite their propensity for dishonesty, the name fiddler crab comes from the fact that while waving their big claw to attract females they look like they are playing the violin.
Scientific Blogging 2008
-
I had been to many picnics there and in gratitude called my fiddler by its name:
Later Articles and Reviews W.B. Yeats 2000
-
The author of the post is cool, he wrote a program I use a lot called fiddler, fiddler2.com
IE8 Logs You Into Multiple Webmail Accounts | Lifehacker Australia 2009
-
The fiddler was a boy of those parts, about twelve years of age, who had a wonderful dexterity in jigs and reels, though his fingers were so small and short as to necessitate a constant shifting for the high notes, from which he scrambled back to the first position with sounds not of unmixed purity of tone.
Wessex Tales 2006
-
The fiddler was the first to set out on his adventures, and did so in the best of spirits and full of courage.
The Green Fairy Book 2003
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.