he was first fiddle
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Chief man, the most distinguished of the company. The allusion is to the leader of concerts, who leads with a fiddle.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “he was first fiddle” mean?
Chief man, the most distinguished of the company. The allusion is to the leader of concerts, who leads with a fiddle.
Is “he was first fiddle” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.