Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb fiddle

7 senses of fiddle

Sense 1
fiddle, shirk, shrink from, goldbrick -- (avoid (one's assigned duties); "The derelict soldier shirked his duties")
       => avoid -- (refrain from doing something; "She refrains from calling her therapist too often"; "He should avoid publishing his wife's memories")

Sense 2
fiddle -- (commit fraud and steal from one's employer; "We found out that she had been fiddling for years")
       => embezzle, defalcate, peculate, misappropriate, malversate -- (appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use; "The accountant embezzled thousands of dollars while working for the wealthy family")

Sense 3
fiddle -- (play the violin or fiddle)
       => play -- (perform music on (a musical instrument); "He plays the flute"; "Can you play on this old recorder?")

Sense 4
fiddle -- (play on a violin; "Zuckerman fiddled that song very nicely")
       => play, spiel -- (replay (as a melody); "Play it again, Sam"; "She played the third movement very beautifully")

Sense 5
toy, fiddle, diddle, play -- (manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination; "She played nervously with her wedding ring"; "Don't fiddle with the screws"; "He played with the idea of running for the Senate")
       => manipulate -- (hold something in one's hands and move it)

Sense 6
tamper, fiddle, monkey -- (play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly; "Someone tampered with the documents on my desk"; "The reporter fiddle with the facts")
       => manipulate -- (hold something in one's hands and move it)

Sense 7
tinker, fiddle -- (try to fix or mend; "Can you tinker with the T.V. set--it's not working right"; "She always fiddles with her van on the weekend")
       => repair, mend, fix, bushel, doctor, furbish up, restore, touch on -- (restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; "She repaired her TV set"; "Repair my shoes please")

Antonyms of adj fiddling

1 sense of fiddling

Sense 1
fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty, picayune, trivial -- ((informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction")

INDIRECT (VIA unimportant) -> important, of import -- (of great significance or value; "important people"; "the important questions of the day")

Similarity of adj fiddling

1 sense of fiddling

Sense 1
fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty, picayune, trivial -- ((informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction")
       => unimportant (vs. important) -- (not important; "a relatively unimportant feature of the system"; "the question seems unimportant")