Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Trifle

Tri′fle, n. [OE. trifle, trufle, OF. trufle mockery, raillery, trifle, probably the same word as F. truffe truffle, the word being applied to any small or worthless object. See Truffle.] 1. A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair.

With such poor trifles playing. Drayton.

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

Small sands the mountain, moments make year, And frifles life. Young.

2. A dish composed of sweetmeats, fruits, cake, wine, etc., with syllabub poured over it.

Tri′fle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Trifled; p. pr. & vb. n. Trifling.] [OE. trifelen, truflen. See Trifle, n.] To act or talk without seriousness, gravity, weight, or dignity; to act or talk with levity; to indulge in light or trivial amusements.

They trifle, and they beat the air about nothing which toucheth us. Hooker.

To trifle with, to play the fool with; to treat without respect or seriousness; to mock; as, to trifle with one's feelings, or with sacred things.

Tri′fle, v. t. 1. To make of no importance; to treat as a trifle. [Obs.] Shak.

2. To spend in vanity; to fritter away; to waste; as, to trifle away money. "We trifle time." Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.