second fiddle | Idiomator

Meaning: (music)Afiddlepart inharmonyto thefirst fiddle.Thesecond fiddleon that tune is almost as hard as the first fiddle.; (music)The person playing second fiddle.I've beensecond fiddlein that orchestra for ten years now.; (idiomatic)Asidekickorsubordinate, or theroleof such a person.I'm tired of being yoursecond fiddle!1987, Joyce Brandon,Lady and the Lawman, page346:Listen, buttercup, you're damned good in bed. They don't come any better, but I'm really not interested in playingsecond fiddleto your camera or your young lovers.

Examples:

EN: I've played second fiddle on this ship long enough.
ES: Bastante llevo ya de segundona en este barco.
EN: And I'm not going on to play second fiddle to any cheap English ham.
ES: Y no voy a hacer de telonero para ningún segundón inglés.
EN: "You've got to love him so abjectly "that you're glad to play second fiddle just to keep the music going for him."
ES: "Deberá quedarse a la sombra para que los focos solo le iluminen a él".
EN: Nothing doing. For two years I played second fiddle to this paper!
ES: No. ¡ Llevo dos años estando después de este periódico!
EN: All my life I've played second fiddle to that weakling and why?
ES: Toda mi vida he sido el segundo detrás de ese pusilánime, ¿y por qué?
EN: I'm not playing second fiddle to anybody.
ES: No voy a ser el segundo violín de nadie.
EN: Because I wouldn't stay to be second fiddle?
ES: ¿Por no querer ser plato de segunda mesa?
EN: It seems as though we'll have to play second fiddle to Herr Hitler.
ES: Tenemos un papel secundario frente a Hitler.
EN: I'm tired playin' second fiddle while you play the czar.
ES: Estoy cansado de ser el segundo violín.
EN: You have to love him so abjectly that you'd gladly play second fiddle ..
ES: "Tendría usted que amarlo hasta el punto... "de quedarse en la sombra...
EN: I ask you, can such an artist as you play second fiddle in a Ziegfeld orchestra?
ES: Te pregunto, ¿puede un artista como tú tocar 2° violín en una orquesta Ziegfeld?
EN: So you're willing to play second fiddle to Young and Goodheart and the others when the chance to make a real discovery falls into our laps.
ES: Está dispuesto a ser segundón, detrás de Young y Goodheart y los demás cuando tenemos la oportunidad de hacer un verdadero descubrimiento.
EN: I'm tired of playing second fiddle to the ghost of Beethoven.
ES: Me cansé de ser el 2o. Violín del fantasma de Beethoven.
EN: Play second fiddle?
ES: ¿Ser el segundo plato?
EN: Can't play second fiddle anymore than you can.
ES: Ninguno de los dos quiere ser el segundo.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).