Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) a swindle, a fraud.

1841		Bombay Gaz. 30 Aug. 3/4: Do, Sir Robert, unbosom yourself of every secret of State policy, or [...] the stock house be shot up from the impossibillty of turtling an honest penny, even to the extent of a turn of the market, and what is emphatically understood there by the slang term of a fiddle.
1873		Sl. Dict. 160: Fiddle [...] In America, a swindle or an imposture.
1946		St. Vincent Troubridge ‘Some Notes on Rhyming Argot’ in AS XXI:1 Feb. 46: fiddle and flute or fiddle. A suit of clothes. [...] The word fiddle alone has its own slang meaning, especially as a verb, viz., to obtain by illicit means, generally including bribery or petty crime. Very near the American ‘graft.’.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: And ’e’s only pulling all the fiddles Cochran used ter swing!
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 29: It served as a handy front when one was working the income tax fiddle.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 297: It was a bit of a fiddle, and I think I’ve learned my lesson now about that sort of thing.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 38: People [...] delighted in telling other people their little fiddles.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 176: If the Customs and Excise found out about Ally’s fiddles, plus the rest.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 115: All that’s left is the fiddle.
2002		(con. 1950) M. McGrath Silvertown 197: The whole East End is a complex web of scams with the docks at its heart. New terms have to be invented for the art of the fiddle.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 41: ‘You want to know if the union was corrupt?’ ‘Was it?’ ‘There might’ve been the odd little fiddle’.

2. a swindler, a cheat at some form of game, e.g. cards, skittles.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		Mirror of Life 11 May 6/2: Bill was reckoned a ‘dapster at the nine,’ [i.e. skittles] and some even went so far as to say Bill was a ‘fiddle’ (sharp) at the game.

3. an unrewarding, annoying job of work.

1999

Metro 3 Aug. 13: Say goodbye to the fiddle of taking off your nail polish.