Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Trifle   /trˈaɪfəl/   Listen
noun
Trifle  n.  
1.
A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair. "With such poor trifles playing." "Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong As proofs of holy writ." "Small sands the mountain, moments make year, And frifles life."
2.
A dish composed of sweetmeats, fruits, cake, wine, etc., with syllabub poured over it.


verb
Trifle  v. t.  
1.
To make of no importance; to treat as a trifle. (Obs.)
2.
To spend in vanity; to fritter away; to waste; as, to trifle away money. "We trifle time."


Trifle  v. i.  (past & past part. trifled; pres. part. trifling)  To act or talk without seriousness, gravity, weight, or dignity; to act or talk with levity; to indulge in light or trivial amusements. "They trifle, and they beat the air about nothing which toucheth us."
To trifle with, to play the fool with; to treat without respect or seriousness; to mock; as, to trifle with one's feelings, or with sacred things.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Trifle" Quotes from Famous Books



... a trifle, and he hesitated before he said, "I am not questioning your judgment, Captain, but you and I have camped out enough to know that a good camp-mate is about the scarcest article to be found. If we take in a stranger on this trip, which I surmise from the outfits is going to ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... no harm done. It'll make them understand that we don't mean to trifle with 'em. Clear the boarding-pikes there. Are the ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne
... from a merchant who had picked them up in the street at Mecca,' said the pedlar. 'I do not know what they may contain, but as they are of no use to me, you are welcome to have them for a trifle.' ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various
... egg, almost as big as a little house. So they began to knock it about with large stones, but, after all, they couldn't crack the shell. Then the lad came up with his sword to see what all the noise was about, and when he saw the egg, he thought it a trifle to crack it; so he gave it one blow and the egg split, and out came a chicken as ...
— Popular Tales from the Norse • Sir George Webbe Dasent
... the rent—rent on land they had literally created, and for huts they had actually built. Two years ago came a flood; swamped them. Asked landlord to make temporary reduction on rent, to tide over troublesome times. Landlord offered a pitiful trifle. What was thought of this shown by County Court Judge, who, on cases that came before him, permanently reduced rent by thrice amount of temporary reduction proffered. Judge further suggested that arrears should ...
— Punch, or, the London Charivari, Volume 98, March 8, 1890. • Various


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Free Translator.org