Idiom
Fit as a fiddle
If you are fit as a fiddle, you are in excellent health and full of energy.
How people use it
It is often said about someone older or someone recovering, sometimes with a note of pleasant surprise: at ninety, Grandma is fit as a fiddle. The full form is as fit as a fiddle, and both are common. It is cheerful and informal. It is about health, not about being good at music or being slim.
Also said: as fit as a fiddle.
Examples
- After a week of rest, Ben was fit as a fiddle and back on his bike.
- The vet says our old dog is as fit as a fiddle.
- My grandfather still swims every morning and is fit as a fiddle at eighty-five.
Where it comes from
The phrase is recorded from around 1600, and no one knows exactly why a fiddle was chosen. In older English, fit often meant suitable or in good condition, and a well-made fiddle in tune was ready to play. The repeated f sound likely helped the phrase stick. Similar comparisons, such as fine as a fiddle, were also used.
Check yourself
1. If your neighbor is fit as a fiddle, how is she?
Answer: Very healthy. Fit as a fiddle means in great health.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: After his surgery and a month of rest, Dad is fit as a fiddle.. The idiom describes excellent health, so being sick in bed does not fit.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in FIDDLE.