trifle
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
Etymology: From Middle English trifle, trifel, triful, trefle, truyfle, trufful, from Old French trufle (“mockery”), a byform of trufe, truffe (“deception”), of uncertain origin.
Inflected forms:
form: trifles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: trifles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: trifling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: trifled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: trifled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: It is interesting to watch the surface joviality on screen while racism is layered between courses like soggy trifles.
gloss: Anything that is of little importance or worth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ.
Olde Chaucer doth of Topas tell, / Mad Rablais of Pantagruell, / A latter third of Dowsabell, / With such poore trifles playing:
[W]hen they had the Character and Honour of a VVoman at their Mercy, often times made it their Jest, and at least look’d upon it as a Trifle, and counted the Ruin of thoſe, they had had their VVill of, as a thing of no value.
‘And all about a rattle!’ said Alice, still hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a trifle.
gloss: Anything that is of little importance or worth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: A trifle, some eight-penny matter.
He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums […]
What’s eighty dollars? A trifle. An insignificant sum.
“It was bad of me then not to send the fifteen hundred dollars. I assumed it would be a trifle.” / “Well, until a few months ago it was a trifle.”
gloss: A very small amount (of something).
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: This Line leaves out […] Poplar and Black-vvall, vvhich are indeed contiguous, a Trifle of Ground excepted, and very populous.
There was a good deal of rustling and whispering behind the curtain, a trifle of lamp smoke, and an occasional giggle from Amy […]
“Take just a trifle of French mustard […]”
gloss: A particular kind of pewter.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: You must not trifle with her affections.
[…] Do not believe / That, from the sense of all civility, / I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
“Miss Bennet,” replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, “you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with […]”
But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.
gloss: To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: […] playing and trifling are completely banished out of my mind […]
But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.
gloss: To inconsequentially toy with something.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Mr. Micawber, leaning back in his chair, trifled with his eye-glass and cast his eyes up at the ceiling […]
She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.
gloss: To squander or waste.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.
For an honest and sober man will rather make that woman his wife, whom he seeth employed continually about her business, than one who makes it her business to trifle away her own and others time.
As it was, he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else.
You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away!
gloss: To make a trifle of, to make trivial.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: […] but this sore night / Hath trifled former knowings.
Synonyms: bagatelle
bag of shells
bric-a-brac
dicky
dicky-bird
fico
fig
flamfew
flyspeck
minuity
niff-naff
picayune
scuddick
sop
ticky-tack
toy
trick
trifle
triviality
whiffle
white chip
Related words: easy thing
modicum
Derived words: a trifle
Black Forest trifle
piffle
trifler
trifle with
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: kleinigheid
lang: Bashkir
word: ваҡ-төйәк
roman: vaq-töyək
lang: Bulgarian
word: дреболия
roman: drebolija
lang: Catalan
word: fotesa
lang: Catalan
word: galindaina
lang: Czech
word: maličkost
lang: Czech
word: drobnost
lang: Czech
word: hloupost
lang: Danish
word: småting
lang: Danish
word: bagatel
lang: Dutch
word: bagatel
lang: Dutch
word: zever
lang: Esperanto
word: bagatelo
lang: Finnish
word: pikkuasia
lang: Finnish
word: pikkujuttu
lang: French
word: babiole
lang: French
word: bricole
lang: French
word: broutille
lang: Galician
word: bagatela
lang: Galician
word: insignificancia
lang: Galician
word: balda
lang: Galician
word: parvada
lang: German
word: Kleinigkeit
lang: Irish
word: réadán
lang: Italian
word: cosa da poco
lang: Italian
word: inezia
lang: Italian
word: bagattella
lang: Latin
word: gerrae
lang: Latin
word: naucum
lang: Latin
word: tittibilīcium
lang: Latin
word: apinae
lang: Latin
word: nugae
lang: Macedonian
word: дребулија
roman: drebulija
lang: Māori
word: takunga
lang: Māori
word: takutakunga
lang: Māori
word: kanehe
lang: Māori
word: kāmuimui
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: småting
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: småting
lang: Polish
word: fraszka
lang: Polish
word: drobiazg
lang: Polish
word: błahostka
lang: Polish
word: bzdet
lang: Polish
word: bagatela
lang: Polish
word: betka
lang: Portuguese
word: ninharia
lang: Portuguese
word: bugiganga
lang: Romanian
word: mărunțiș
lang: Russian
word: безделу́шка
roman: bezdelúška
lang: Russian
word: безде́лица
roman: bezdélica
lang: Russian
word: пустя́к
roman: pustják
lang: Russian
word: ме́лочь
roman: méločʹ
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: трича̀рија
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: tričàrija
lang: Slovak
word: maličkosť
lang: Spanish
word: nadería
lang: Spanish
word: nimiedad
lang: Spanish
word: zarandaja
lang: Spanish
word: friolera
lang: Spanish
word: menudencia
lang: Spanish
word: quisquilla
lang: Spanish
word: pequeñez
lang: Swedish
word: bagatell
lang: Swedish
word: småsak
lang: Swedish
word: struntsak