trifle

From Middle English trifle, trifel, triful, trefle, truyfle, trufful, from Old French trufle (“mockery”), a byform of trufe, truffe (“deception”), of uncertain origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaɪfəl/

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• Rhymes: -aɪfəl
• Hyphenation: tri‧fle

trifle (countable and uncountable, plural trifles)

1. An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.

   Coordinate terms: tiramisu, bread pudding

2. Anything that is of little importance or worth.

   Synonyms: bagatelle, minor detail, whiffle; see also Thesaurus:trifle

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Trifles light as air
     Are to the jealous confirmation strong
     As proofs of holy writ.

   • 1627, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “Nimphidia. The Court of Fayrie.”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for VVilliam Lee, […], published 1631, OCLC 1011821086:

     Olde Chaucer doth of Topas tell,
     Mad Rablais of Pantagruell,
     A latter third of Dowsabell,
     With such poore trifles playing:

   • 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edlin, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; J. Brotherton, […]; C. King, and J. Stags, […], published 1722, OCLC 745118774, page 34:

     […] 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 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], chapter 4, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 1079211351:

     ‘And all about a rattle!’ said Alice, still hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a trifle.

   1. An insignificant amount of money.
      • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

        A trifle, some eight-penny matter.

      • 1817 December​, [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 1818, OCLC 318384910:

        He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums […]

      • 1899 September – 1900 July​, Joseph Conrad, chapter 30, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, OCLC 8754022, page 311:

        What’s eighty dollars? A trifle. An insignificant sum.

      • 1976, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, New York: Avon, →ISBN, page 462:

        “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.”

3. 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,

     This Line leaves out […] Poplar and Black-wall, which are indeed contiguous, a Trifle of Ground excepted, and very populous.

   • 1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 2, in Little Women: Or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, part first, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, OCLC 30743985:

     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,

     “Take just a trifle of French mustard […] ”

4. A particular kind of pewter.
5. (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.

• a trifle

trifle (third-person singular simple present trifles, present participle trifling, simple past and past participle trifled)

1. (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.

   You must not trifle with her affections.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     […] Do not believe
     That, from the sense of all civility,
     I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 56, in Pride and Prejudice, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton […], OCLC 38659585:

     “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,

     But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.

2. (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter 27, in Wuthering Heights, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], OCLC 156123328:

     […] playing and trifling are completely banished out of my mind […]

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 19, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, OCLC 279587, page 405:

     But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.

3. (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 28, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, OCLC 558196156:

     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,

     She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.

4. (transitive) To squander or waste.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:

     We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 62,

     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.

   • 1817 December​, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 1818, OCLC 318384910:

     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,

     You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away!

5. (transitive, obsolete) To make a trifle of, to make trivial.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:

     […] but this sore night
     Hath trifled former knowings.

• (toy with): fiddle
• (squander): fritter, wanton

• trifle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Trefil, filter, filtre, firtle, lifter, relift

trifle m (plural trifles)

1. trifle (English dessert)