frivol
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
verb
-
(intr) to behave frivolously; trifle
-
to waste on frivolous pursuits
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of frivol
First recorded in 1865–70; back formation from frivolous
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For his present visit, Gielgud apparently questioned the importance of being earnest: he would frivol first in Wilde's classic farce, later in Congreve's Restoration comedy, Love for Love.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were few awards in fields of frivol: Oscars, Tonys, Grammys didn't exist.
From Time Magazine Archive
He only signaled to another guard—this one taller and older—who said, “Step aside, please, or we’ll have to arrest you. This is not a place to frivol with.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
I can’t frivol with that big question unsolved, so I’m going away quietly by myself to think it out.
From An Unknown Lover by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
Everything seems different and more solemn, and I don’t think I can ever frivol again in quite the same whole-hearted way.
From The Heart of Una Sackville by Peter Tarrant
To him, life is a boon, a privilege, an investment, an opportunity, a responsibility, and, therefore, a gift too precious to be squandered or frivoled away.
From The Reconstructed School by Francis B. Pearson
To think that I, Geoffrey Fox, who have frittered and frivoled, should have put on paper things which have burned into men's consciousness and have made them better.
From Mistress Anne by F. Vaux (Francis Vaux) Wilson
Though, under the surface, life upon Blue Lake ranch was sufficiently tense, the remaining days of June frivoled by as bright and bonny as the little meadow-blues flirting with the field-flowers.
From Judith of Blue Lake Ranch by Jackson Gregory
Where he had doubted, he was now convinced; where he had frivoled, he was in deep, intense earnest; the fact that there would be certain difficulties to overcome only seemed to strengthen the inward determination.
From Flaming June by A. Gilbert
But the other men made them first, you see, and I've just frivoled and played.
From Glory of Youth by Henry Hutt
Perhaps this was intended to stifle persistent rumors of a rift between General Weygand and the Vichy Government, for otherwise it did not seem like the week for Vichymen to go frivoling.
From Time Magazine Archive
Falstaff, still the boon companion of the errant, frivoling Prince Hal, swaggers and swills in rich midsummer plenty.
From Time Magazine Archive
Just think what I might be had I been prepared for life like Malcolm or Oliver, instead of wasting all my years frivoling.
From The Fifth Wheel A Novel by Olive Higgins Prouty
Oh, to show Colonel Stoddard my one-man and no-horse farm—you know, the automatically cultivated ten-acre stunt I've been frivoling with.
From The Little Lady of the Big House by Jack London
Prue was the locust, frivoling away the summer.
From In a Little Town by Rupert Hughes
"If I have frivolled enough, it's about time you said something."
From Out of the Primitive by Robert Ames Bennet
He asked her all about herself, where she lived, if she got up early, if she was busy, if she frivolled, and arrived at a mental summary of her circumstances.
From Married Life The True Romance by May Edginton
He felt it utterly unfair that she should sit alone by an empty hearth while he and Jean frivolled.
From The Tin Soldier by Temple Bailey
“Stop frivolling, and let me get to my point!” commanded Raymonde.
From The Madcap of the School by Balliol Salmon
She brought him to his bearings by suddenly "frivolling" again.
From Winnie Childs The Shop Girl by C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson
I suppose you think I have no right to be frivolling in these very serious times, but I am afraid I am rather an offender when the humour takes me.
From Nobody's Man by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
She had a way of making the frivolling talk of the supper table appear a warrantable substitute for the things that Peter knew, even while he echoed her phrases, that he wasn't getting.
From The Lovely Lady by Gordon Grant
I don't think there seemed to be any real harm in that sort of frivolling.
From Miss Million's Maid A Romance of Love and Fortune by Mrs. Oliver Onions
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
