trifle
English
Etymology
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From Middle English trifle, trifel, triful, trefle, truyfle, trufful, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French trufle (“mockery”), a byform of trufe, truffe (“deception”), of uncertain origin.
Pronunciation
Noun
trifle (countable and uncountable, plural trifles)
- An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
- Coordinate terms: tiramisu, bread pudding
- Anything that is of little importance or worth.
- Synonyms: bagatelle, minor detail, whiffle; see also Thesaurus:trifle
- c. 1604 William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene 3,[1]
- Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ.
- 1631, Michael Drayton, Nimphidia the Court of Fayrie in The Battaile of Agincourt, London: William Lee, p. 168,[2]
- 1722, Daniel Defoe, The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, London, p. 34,[3]
- […] when they had the Character and Honour of a Woman 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 Will of, as a thing of no value.
- 1871, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4,[4]
- ‘And all about a rattle!’ said Alice, still hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a trifle.
- An insignificant amount of money.
- c. 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act III, Scene 3,[5]
- A trifle, some eight-penny matter.
- 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter 9,[6]
- He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums […]
- 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, Chapter 30, p. 311,[7]
- What’s eighty dollars? A trifle. An insignificant sum.
- 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York: Avon, 1976, p. 462,[8]
- “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.”
- c. 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act III, Scene 3,[5]
- A very small amount (of something).
- Synonyms: smidgen; see also Thesaurus:modicum
- 1742, Daniel Defoe, A tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain, London: J. Osborn et al., Volume 2, Letter II. Containing A Description of the City of London, p. 90, footnote,[9]
- This Line leaves out […] Poplar and Black-wall, which are indeed contiguous, a Trifle of Ground excepted, and very populous.
- 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 1, Chapter 2,[10]
- There was a good deal of rustling and whispering behind the curtain, a trifle of lamp smoke, and an occasional giggle from Amy […]
- 1932, Graham Greene, Stamboul Strain, London: Heinemann, Part 4, p. 180,[11]
- “Take just a trifle of French mustard […] ”
- A particular kind of pewter.
- (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.
Derived terms
Translations
dessert
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insignificant amount
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thing of little importance or worth
kind of pewter
utensils made from this kind of pewter
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Verb
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- (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.
- You must not trifle with her affections.
- c. 1604 William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene 1,[12]
- […] Do not believe
- That, from the sense of all civility,
- I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
- 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56,[13]
- “Miss Bennet,” replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, “you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with […] ”
- 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, Penguin, 1958, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 171,[14]
- But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.
- (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 27,[15]
- […] playing and trifling are completely banished out of my mind […]
- 1953, Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking, 1960, Chapter 19, p. 405,[16]
- But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 27,[15]
- (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
- 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 28,[17]
- Mr. Micawber, leaning back in his chair, trifled with his eye-glass and cast his eyes up at the ceiling […]
- 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, New York: Fawcett, 1967, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 151,[18]
- She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.
- 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 28,[17]
- (transitive) To squander or waste.
- c. 1596 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,[19]
- We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.
- 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 62,[20]
- 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.
- 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 6,[21]
- 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.
- 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 189,[22]
- You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away!
- c. 1596 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,[19]
- (transitive, obsolete) To make a trifle of, to make trivial.
- c. 1605 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 4,[23]
- […] but this sore night
- Hath trifled former knowings.
- c. 1605 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 4,[23]
Synonyms
Translations
To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth
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To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest
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To inconsequentially toy with something
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To squander or waste
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See also
Anagrams
Portuguese
Noun
trifle m (plural trifles)
- trifle (English dessert)
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aɪfəl
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Desserts
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns