trifle
Americannoun
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an article or thing of very little value.
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a matter, affair, or circumstance of trivial importance or significance.
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a small, inconsiderable, or trifling sum of money.
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a small quantity or amount of anything; a little.
She's still a trifle angry.
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a literary, musical, or artistic work of a light or trivial character having no great or lasting merit; bagatelle.
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a kind of pewter of medium hardness.
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trifles, articles made of this.
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English Cooking. a dessert usually consisting of custard and cake soaked in wine or liqueur, and jam, fruit, or the like.
verb (used without object)
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to deal lightly or without due seriousness or respect.
Don't trifle with me!
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to play or toy by handling or fingering.
He sat trifling with a pen.
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to act or talk in an idle or frivolous way.
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to pass time idly or frivolously; waste time; idle.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a thing of little or no value or significance
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a small amount; bit
a trifle more enthusiasm
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a cold dessert made with sponge cake spread with jam or fruit, soaked in wine or sherry, covered with a custard sauce and cream, and decorated
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a type of pewter of medium hardness
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articles made from this pewter
verb
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to deal (with) as if worthless; dally
to trifle with a person's affections
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to waste (time) frivolously
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of trifle
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English tru ( f ) fle idle talk, deceit < Old French, variant of truf ( f ) e mockery, deceit; (v.) Middle English treoflen to mock < Old French trufler to make sport of
Explanation
A trifle is something that's totally unimportant. If your friend is freaking out over which poster to buy and you call her dilemma a trifle, you're saying she shouldn't get so worked up over nothing. Trifle comes from the Middle English trufle, meaning "fraud, joke, trick." You'll usually hear it used to mean "insignificant, trivial." If you write a little ditty to sing at a birthday party, you could say it's just a trifle. As a verb, trifle means "toy with, waste." If you play with someone's feelings without seriously meaning anything, you are trifling with his affection. Trifle is also a sweet, sticky cake. Don't trifle the day away dreaming about trifle. Make some!
Vocabulary lists containing trifle
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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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:
The game badly misses Alcaraz—“Tennis needs him,” Sinner said Sunday—but no tennis player should trifle with a bad wrist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Still, it is the frolicsome rapport between the two stars that gives this comic trifle of a play its allure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Out of magnanimity, I’ll liken this trifle to a Rothko.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
Looking towards Christmas, the baker said he would be making a triple chocolate tart for his cousin Grace and might recreate his trifle from the show.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2025
He made a half gesture to the woman who sat beside him, but her thin, bloodless lips merely pursed themselves a trifle.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
For me, trifles sit in the same category as icebox cakes—slightly chaotic, unexpectedly good and suspiciously easy.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2025
As the judge in that case noted, the law is not concerned with insignificant trifles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025
She’s interested in adding regular savories such as pasties and sausage rolls, and maybe bringing new treats such as trifles or Eton Messes to her roster.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
Other, seemingly familiar terms — romper room, sherry trifles — have their innocence stripped from them to reveal a second, more sinister meaning.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2022
Mittelstaedt stoops down and says reproachfully: “And in the trifles never lose sight of the great adventure, Territorial Kantorek!”
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
“They trifled with us today,” Mr. Trump said Thursday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
This powerful wave is not to be trifled with, and in the event of an emergency, the staff can turn it off instantly.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2023
From eating holes in people's brains to generating nasty tumors to putting folks in comas, some fungi are not to be trifled with.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2023
Sleep is not to be trifled with; there is nothing low-stakes about it.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 16, 2023
“I am no one to be trifled with,” replied the man in black.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
But it’s the songs that talk about brushing off stifling, trifling men, including the title track and “What Have You Done For Me Lately,” that have the most staying power.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2026
Before IMG and ProServ, athletes typically got trifling rewards for endorsing products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
The planet’s trifling atmosphere—about 1 percent the density of our own—is notoriously too thin to help slow down a spacecraft attempting to land, but can still create turbulence and potential disaster.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
Frankly, the more trifling the crime, the better this franchise’s comedy aspirations would work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2025
The race in question was a forgettable weekday event for a trifling purse, but Blume was strapped for money.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
