play someone like a violin
To control or manipulate someone, especially by playing on their emotions.
noun
A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow.
When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like this, it's a violin.
She was looking more like Sherlock Holmes than ever. Slap a dressing-gown on her and give her a violin, and she could have walked straight into Baker Street and no questions asked.
Any instrument of the violin family, always inclusive of violins, violas and cellos, and sometimes further including the double bass.
The string quartet, one of the most popular groupings in chamber music, is composed entirely of violins: two violins proper, one viola, and one cello.
A violinist in an orchestra or group.
The violins are seated with sufficient elbow room.
She is first violin in the London Symphony Orchestra.
verb
To play on, or as if on, a violin.