piffle
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
piffles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
piffled,
past participle, past
-
piffling
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pifflesimple
-
pifflessimple
-
have piffledperfect
-
has piffledperfect
-
am pifflingprogressive
-
are pifflingprogressive
-
is pifflingprogressive
-
have been pifflingperfect progressive
-
has been pifflingperfect progressive
Past
-
piffledsimple
-
had piffledperfect
-
was pifflingprogressive
-
were pifflingprogressive
-
had been pifflingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of piffle
First recorded in 1840–50; perhaps akin to puff
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:
I defy you to tell me what this blithering piffle actually means.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
In retrospect, was Blinken’s vision of music as a vehicle of global transformation a blip and a piffle, a charmingly naïve indulgence?
From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2023
If you don’t look closely, or are in a reactive state of mind, it’s easy enough to write off the show as Cold War piffle, even propaganda for a world of bland “normalcy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
In the middle of the season, that is just a piffle.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 4, 2019
And so he did at first, and I used to cry over the blooming piffle he put into his letters, and wish I'd been a straighter woman, for his sake.
From The Dop Doctor by Richard Dehan
Setting a price ridiculously below dealer costs, knowing that a customer will not find anything cheaper elsewhere, and then "uploading" the package with piffles when the buyer returns.
From Time Magazine Archive
Misther Madden says 'Piffle,' but Oi say where are they piffled to?
From The Cruise of the Dry Dock by T. S. Stribling
I knew — I knew what was coming, when we bid on the Byfleet's keel — They piddled and piffled with iron: I'd given my orders for steel!
From Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling
They piddled and piffled with iron: I'd given my orders for steel.
From The Seven Seas by Rudyard Kipling
However, one former economic advisor to the government described the tax contribution of high value residents as "piffling".
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Yet it went ignored while Sly Stallone’s piffling King Lear act in the mediocre Creed is hailed like the second coming.
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2016
Set against the possible end of a 307-year union, that might seem a piffling difference.
From Economist ● Sep. 11, 2014
There is even a tiny one – a piffling four million times as massive as the Sun – at the heart of the Milky Way, the galaxy we call home.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 12, 2012
The piffling toad steps away from her and says, “Non capisco! Ha!”
From "The Unfinished Angel" by Sharon Creech
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
