violin

Etymology

From Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino (“forming diminutives”).

noun

1. A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow.
   When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like this, it's a violin.
2. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Any instrument of the violin family, always inclusive of violins, violas, and cellos and sometimes further including the double bass.
   The string quartet, one of the most popular groupings in chamber music, is composed entirely of violins: two violins proper, one viola, and one cello.
3. (music, metonymically) The position of a violinist in an orchestra or group.
   The first violin often plays the lead melody lines in a string quartet.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To play on, or as if on, a violin.