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.]
Themistocles . . . said he could not fiddle, but he
could make a small town a great city. --Bacon.
2. To keep the hands and fingers actively moving as a fiddler
does; to move the hands and fingers restlessy or in busy
idleness; to trifle.
Talking, and fiddling with their hats and feathers.
--Pepys.