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🎻 A violin 🤏 To fidget 😴 To avoid work 🕵️ To cheat 🎻 To play violin
to fiddle

to fiddle

7 7.7
To avoid work by doing small unimportant tasks
  • verb
  • /ˈfɪdəl/
  • Informal
translation icon : perder el tiempo
  • While Congress, including Democrats, sits around fiddling and faddling, unsure about what ought to be done, states are on the move, making it happen.
  • fiddle around

David Axelrod, we are fiddling as the world burns.

Examples

  • I don't want you sitting around in here all summer fiddling with this stuff... like you did last summer and the one before.

    The Sandlot (1993)

  • There is no longer any time left to fiddle away.

    Blog text (20)

  • And we don't really have time to fiddle around trying to trying to see if something is going to work.

  • Look, are you just fiddling around with me, or what?

    The Princess Bride (1987)

  • I didn't have all year to fiddle with the job.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Often, the user is bored with the usual procedures or results and so fiddles around to produce a different result.

    Academic text (2013)

  • I wish you would stop fiddling with your phone and start working on your assignments.

  • Instead of actually working on the project, he spent the whole afternoon fiddling with the computer settings.

  • She was just fiddling in the kitchen while dinner was burning on the stove.

Synonyms

to shirk
vsto fiddle
19 6.3

To avoid doing work because it is hard or unpleasant

avoids duties by keeping busy with trivial tasks instead
to shrink from
vsto fiddle
7 5.1

Avoid doing something difficult or unpleasant because you are afraid

avoids responsibilities by aimless busywork rather than fear based refusal
to twiddling thumbs
vsto fiddle
  • Informal
4 5.8

To do nothing while you wait for something to happen

fills time with unimportant tasks to dodge duties instead of waiting
to goldbrick
vsto fiddle
  • Archaic
1 9.5

To avoid work by pretending to be busy

avoids duties by aimlessly doing unimportant tasks
to piddling around
vsto fiddle
  • Informal
8.6

To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan

uses trivial tasks to avoid assigned responsibilities rather than relax

Antonyms

to fulfill
  • US
265 2.8

To do what is required or promised

to attend to
151 3.6

To take care of someone or something

Idioms

second fiddle
  • Informal
8 6.0

A person who has a less important role and helps someone more important

fit as a fiddle
  • Informal
6 4.2

In very good health and full of energy

to play first fiddle
  • Informal
1 7.3

To lead a group or activity as the most important person

face like a fiddle
  • UK
9.3

A face that looks healthy and young

to hang up one's fiddle
  • Archaic
9.6

To stop doing an activity, especially to stop playing music for good

Phrasal Verbs

to fiddle with
32 3.9

To touch or move something nervously without thinking

Compounds

bass fiddle
  • Specialized
1 4.7

A very large violin that makes very low sounds

fiddle-faddle
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Silly, unimportant talk that wastes time

bull fiddle
  • Archaic
9.1

A very large string instrument like a big violin that makes low sounds

wheel fiddle
9.9

A string instrument that makes sound when a wheel rubs its strings

How Responsible

to neglect
256 3.8
to fiddle
  • Informal
7 7.7

Surface Forms

fiddle infinitive
fiddled past
fiddled past participle
fiddling present participle
fiddles third person singular

Etymology

Fiddle meaning to avoid your duties comes from people keeping busy with small, unimportant tasks instead of doing the real work. A common image is 'fiddle while Rome burns', which shows someone wasting time when something urgent needs doing.