fiddlehead
Americannoun
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Nautical. a billethead having a form similar to the volute carved at the upper end of a violin.
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the young, coiled frond of various species of ferns, eaten as a vegetable.
noun
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nautical an ornamental carving, in the shape of the scroll at the head end of a fiddle, fitted to the top of the stem or cutwater
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the edible coiled tip of a young fern frond
Etymology
Origin of fiddlehead
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Spring specialties: garlic scapes, pea shoots, ramps, fiddlehead ferns, English peas, fava beans.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2025
Gradually, native ingredients like kawakawa or fiddlehead ferns, as well as traditional cooking techniques, have inspired non-Maori New Zealand chefs like Al Brown or Ben Bayly.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
You ask about beautifully named foods that you have never engaged with before—ugli fruit, Buddha’s hand, fiddlehead ferns—and then you chat with the people buying them about how they plan to prepare them.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
Two pieces depicting fiddlehead ferns offer a more asymmetrical and cartoonlike take on frond shapes, focusing not on the delicacy of the plant but on its curling vigor.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2010
One even had a butterfly proboscis, curled up like a fiddlehead.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
