FRIVOLOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does frivolous mean? 

• FRIVOLOUS (adjective)
  The adjective FRIVOLOUS has 1 sense:

1. not serious in content or attitude or behavior

  Familiarity information: FRIVOLOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRIVOLOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not serious in content or attitude or behavior

Context example:

a frivolous young woman

Similar:

airheaded; dizzy; empty-headed; featherbrained; giddy; light-headed; lightheaded; silly (lacking seriousness; given to frivolity)

flighty; flyaway; head-in-the-clouds; scatterbrained (guided by whim and fancy)

flippant; light-minded (showing inappropriate levity)

idle; light (silly or trivial)

light (intended primarily as entertainment; not serious or profound)

trivial (concerned with trivialities)

Also:

superficial (concerned with or comprehending only what is apparent or obvious; not deep or penetrating emotionally or intellectually)

Attribute:

earnestness; serious-mindedness; seriousness; sincerity (the trait of being serious)

Antonym:

serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)

Derivation:

frivolity (acting like a clown or buffoon)

frivolity; frivolousness (the trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible)

 Context examples 

Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Aunt woke up and, being more good-natured after her nap, told me to read a bit and show what frivolous work I preferred to the worthy and instructive Belsham.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Then, suddenly altering his tone, Excuse this frivolous family badinage, Mr. Malone.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They began to talk; their conversation eased me completely: frivolous, mercenary, heartless, and senseless, it was rather calculated to weary than enrage a listener.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to every thing but her beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding years—years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education, while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I was heart-weary of this empty life, for which I was so ill-fashioned, and weary also of that intolerant talk which would make a coterie of frivolous women and foolish fops the central point of the universe.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But they were kindly people, in spite of the frivolous life they led, and soon put their guest at her ease.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that came in her way.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Her own fortune she had taken care to secure; and when her mother died—and it was wholly improbable, she tranquilly remarked, that she should either recover or linger long—she would execute a long-cherished project: seek a retirement where punctual habits would be permanently secured from disturbance, and place safe barriers between herself and a frivolous world.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)