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Idiom: Play (someone) like a fiddle
You may be able to play the fiddle and play someone like a fiddle.
However, just because you can play the fiddle doesn’t mean you can play someone like a fiddle.
Then again, you may play someone like a fiddle but not play the fiddle itself.
Confused? OK, go back and reread it.
One of the great things about reading is that you can stop whenever you want and go back to review.
You can’t do that in a conversation.
Anyways, if you can play someone like a fiddle, you can easily and skillfully manipulate them to do what you want them to do.
In one sense, you could be what is called a smooth talker who is very good at sweet talk.
In another sense, you could know the person very well.
If you are married, and you are a woman, I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar you can play your husband like a fiddle.
The astonishing part is he doesn’t even realize he is being manipulated.
I know my wife can play me like a fiddle to convince me of something, and I don’t understand what happened until a few weeks later.
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Now, you may say I am slow on the uptake, but I’d prefer to say my wife is very skillful.
She knows me very well, too well.
The problem is I still don’t understand her even after twenty-something years of marriage.
Marriage is unfair, sometimes.
Women have this uncanny ability to play their husbands like so many fiddles, but the men have no idea what’s going on.
Oh well. I can’t play the fiddle, but I’m played like a fiddle.
That’s just the way it goes, I suppose.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 78.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
