different between fiddle vs faddle

English

Etymology

From Middle English fithele, from Old English fiþele. Cognate with Old High German fidula (German Fiedel), Middle Dutch vedele (Dutch vedel, veel), Old Norse fiðla (Icelandic fiðla, Danish fiddel, Norwegian fela).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f?d(?)l/
• (General American) enPR: f?d?l, IPA^(key): /?f?dl?/, [?f??l?]
• Hyphenation: fid?dle
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Noun

fiddle (plural fiddles)

1. (music) Any of various bowed string instruments, often a violin when played in any of various traditional styles, as opposed to classical violin.

   Synonym: violin

2. A kind of dock (Rumex pulcher) with leaves shaped like the musical instrument.
3. An adjustment intended to cover up a basic flaw.

4. A fraud; a scam.
5. (nautical) On board a ship or boat, a rail or batten around the edge of a table or stove to prevent objects falling off at sea. (Also fiddle rail)

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• crowd, crwth

Verb

fiddle (third-person singular simple present fiddles, present participle fiddling, simple past and past participle fiddled)

1. To play aimlessly.

   • Talking, and fiddling with their hats and feathers.

   You're fiddling your life away.

2. (transitive) To adjust or manipulate for deception or fraud.

   I needed to fiddle the lighting parameters to get the image to look right.

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

3. (music) To play traditional tunes on a violin in a non-classical style.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates

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

4. To touch or fidget with something in a restless or nervous way, or tinker with something in an attempt to make minor adjustments or improvements.

Synonyms

• (to adjust in order to cover a basic flaw): fudge

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• fritter

English

Etymology

Compare fiddle, fiddle-faddle.

Verb

faddle (third-person singular simple present faddles, present participle faddling, simple past and past participle faddled)

1. To trifle; to toy.
2. (Britain, dialect) To fondle; to dandle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (to trifle): fiddle
• (to fondle): dawt, grope, pettle, tiddle; see also Thesaurus:fondle