fiddle

A violin, a small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin, shoulder, chest or on the upper thigh and played with a bow (see also usage notes below).

...Of harpe & of salteriun. of fiðele & of coriun...

Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard 'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia an' the Devil deals the cards...

Any of various other bowed stringed instruments, particularly those of the violin family when played non-classically.

The fiddle of these early times, however, was the viol and not our modern violin.

A violinist, or fiddler, in a band.

He is first fiddle in the band.

Something resembling a violin, or fiddle, in shape

Something resembling a violin, or fiddle, in shape

To play the fiddle or violin, particularly in a folk or country style.

to fiddle while Rome burns

Themistocles […] said he could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great city.

To fraudulently manipulate (records, accounts, etc.) in order to cheat or swindle.

Fred was sacked when the auditors caught him fiddling the books.

To fidget or play; to fuss; to idly amuse oneself, to act aimlessly, idly, or frivolously, particularly out of nervousness or restlessness; see also fiddle with.

Sit up straight and stop fiddling!

Loke you fydell nat with your handes whan your maister speketh to you.

Synonym of tinker (“to make small adjustments or improvements”); see also fiddle with.

I don't exactly know how to fix this lawnmower; I'm really just fiddling.

To do odd jobs for money.

A cake-seller told me that a little while before I saw him a lad of twelve or so had consumed a shilling’s worth of cakes and pastry, as he had got a shilling by “fiddling;” not, be it understood, by the exercise of any musical skill, for “fiddling,” among the initiated, means the holding of horses, or the performing of any odd jobs.

Synonym of fiddlesticks or euphemism for fuck.

Oh, fiddle. I left my whip in the stable.