FIDDLER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fiddler mean? 

• FIDDLER (noun)
  The noun FIDDLER has 3 senses:

1. a musician who plays the violin

2. someone who manipulates in a nervous or unconscious manner

3. an unskilled person who tries to fix or mend

  Familiarity information: FIDDLER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIDDLER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A musician who plays the violin

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fiddler; violinist

Hypernyms ("fiddler" is a kind of...):

instrumentalist; musician; player (someone who plays a musical instrument (as a profession))

Instance hyponyms:

Arcangelo Corelli; Corelli (Italian violinist and composer of violin concertos (1653-1713))

Enesco; George Enescu; Georges Enesco (Romanian violinist and composer (1881-1955))

Grappelli; Stephane Grappelli (French jazz violinist (1908-1997))

Joachim; Joseph Joachim (Hungarian violinist and composer (1831-1907))

Fritz Kreisler; Kreisler (United States violinist (born in Austria) (1875-1962))

Menuhin; Sir Yehudi Menuhin; Yehudi Menuhin (British violinist (born in the United States) who began his career as a child prodigy in the 1920s (1916-1999))

Niccolo Paganini; Paganini (Italian violinist and composer of music for the violin (1782-1840))

Isaac Stern; Stern (United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920))

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi; Antonio Vivaldi; Vivaldi (Italian baroque composer and violinist (1675-1741))

Efrem Zimbalist; Zimbalist (United States violinist (born in Russia) (1889-1985))

Pinchas Zukerman; Zukerman (Israeli violinist (born in 1948))

Derivation:

fiddle (play the violin or fiddle)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who manipulates in a nervous or unconscious manner

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fiddler; twiddler

Hypernyms ("fiddler" is a kind of...):

manipulator (a person who handles things manually)

Derivation:

fiddle (manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An unskilled person who tries to fix or mend

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fiddler; tinkerer

Hypernyms ("fiddler" is a kind of...):

unskilled person (a person who lacks technical training)

Derivation:

fiddle (try to fix or mend)

 Context examples 

Then the fiddler said, “That is your and my house, where we are to live.” “Where are your servants?” cried she.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Neither could I wonder at all this, when I saw such an interruption of lineages, by pages, lackeys, valets, coachmen, gamesters, fiddlers, players, captains, and pickpockets.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Five little fiddlers played as loudly as possible, and the people were laughing and singing, while a big table near by was loaded with delicious fruits and nuts, pies and cakes, and many other good things to eat.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It is my opinion the fiddler David must have been an insipid sort of fellow; I like black Bothwell better: to my mind a man is nothing without a spice of the devil in him; and history may say what it will of James Hepburn, but I have a notion, he was just the sort of wild, fierce, bandit hero whom I could have consented to gift with my hand.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

That is no business of mine, said the fiddler: why should you wish for another husband?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

For, instead of a long train with royal diadems, I saw in one family two fiddlers, three spruce courtiers, and an Italian prelate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But the princess knew nothing of making fires and cooking, and the fiddler was forced to help her.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

See now, said the fiddler, you are good for nothing; you can do no work: what a bargain I have got!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I am the fiddler who has lived with you in the hut.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)