fiddler

plural fiddlers · alternative pronunciation spelling fiddlah · alternative pronunciation spelling fiddluh

1. One who plays the fiddle.
2. One who fiddles; a cheat.

   We were the self-controlled, cautious, nifty merchants, decorous fiddlers of accounts, hoarders of wealth, excellent bribers, family and community creatures governed by manners.

   2005, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The drama of my life (in The Independent online, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-drama-of-my-life-483792.html)

3. One who fiddles or tweaks.

   The community of radio amateurs—trespassing fiddlers on the cutting edge of technological possibilities—prefigured the geek community that was to inhabit Silicon Valley 50 years later.

   2012, Fiorenza Belussi, Udo Hermann Staber, Managing Networks of Creativity, page 92

4. 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.
5. The common European sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos); so called because it habitually wags its tail up and down resembling the back and forth movement of a fiddler.
6. A large species of cicada, Macrotristria angularis, of eastern Australia; cherry nose.
7. UKobsoleteslangA coin of little value: a sixpence or a farthing.
8. slangnauticalThe capstan-house on a steamer.

   1 more example

   Whereupon you shake hands with him […] and make room for him by your side in the "Fiddler," when the pleasant time of night is come, and the stewardess is tucking up the ladies, and putting oranges and other goodies under their pillows, and the menfolk assemble in the capstan house to smoke their last cigar.

   1877, Official Guide and Album of the Cunard Steamship Company, page 95

plural Fiddlers

1. A surname originating as an occupation.