A small bowed stringed instrument which is essentially a very small violin-like wood instrument designed to fit in a pocket, hence its common name.

Also known as a pocket fiddle, it was developed to be used by dance masters in royal courts and other places of nobility, and by street musicians, from about the 15th century until around the 19th century, with it being especially popular in the 1800s. In the past, the rebec was used in a similar way.

The instrument's body is very small, but its fingerboard is long relative to the instrument's overall size, to preserve as much of the instrument's melodic range as possible. Pochettes come in many shapes, with the narrow boat-shaped ones called sardinos being one of the most common, along with the pear-shaped type. A pochette shaped like a violin is called a kit violin.