Word.ws English Dictionary

played first fiddle

played first fiddle is the simple past and past participle of play first fiddle.

Meaning of play first fiddle

Verb

play first fiddle (third-person singular simple present plays first fiddle, present participle playing first fiddle, simple past and past participle played first fiddle)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To play a leading role.

Questions about played first fiddle

What is played first fiddle the simple past and past participle of?
Played first fiddle is the simple past and past participle of play first fiddle.

Words near played first fiddle in the dictionary

  1. played dumb
  2. played fair
  3. played fast and loose
  4. played favorites
  5. played fine
  6. played first fiddle
  7. played for love
  8. played for time
  9. played full
  10. played games
  11. played God

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played first fiddle (page history and authors); play first fiddle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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