I don't know that there is much soaring upwards in bagatelle.
And, after all, when they got to Berkeley Square no bagatelle was played at all.
But the bagatelle would almost have been better than what occurred.
He was a member of the Baldwin, the Cavendish, and the bagatelle card clubs.
He could not be cold-blooded enough to drive even such a bagatelle from his head.
After we finished shooting some of us had a game of bagatelle on a table in the gun-room.
He hurried off, and in a moment the clack of bagatelle began again.
I know one to be had a bargain,—a bagatelle,—five hundred naps a-year.
"They're bagatelle," she said, using one of her mother's rare phrases.
Who spoke but now of 'killing time,' 'play,' 'Number One,' and 'bagatelle'?
1630s, "a trifle," from French bagatelle "knick-knack, bauble, trinket" (16c.), from Italian bagatella "a trifle," diminutive of Latin baca "berry." As "a piece of light music," it is attested from 1827.