TRIFLING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does trifling mean? 

• TRIFLING (noun)
  The noun TRIFLING has 1 sense:

1. the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working

  Familiarity information: TRIFLING used as a noun is very rare.

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

1. not worth considering

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRIFLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

dalliance; dawdling; trifling

Hypernyms ("trifling" is a kind of...):

delay; holdup (the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time)

Derivation:

trifle (waste time; spend one's time idly or inefficiently)

• TRIFLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not worth considering

Synonyms:

negligible; paltry; trifling

Context example:

a trifling matter

Similar:

worthless (lacking in usefulness or value)

 Context examples 

There must be no trifling with HER affections, poor dear.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And Frank Churchill was heard to say, “I think you could manage this without effort; the first part is so very trifling. The strength of the song falls on the second.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“There are then some of you who have a taste for such trifling.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

People do not die of little trifling colds.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A few trifling points might perhaps be added.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My trifling occupations take up my time and amuse me, and I am rewarded for any exertions by seeing none but happy, kind faces around me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This may be some trifling intrigue, and I cannot break my other important research for the sake of it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

May Chester was rather jealous of Amy because the latter was a greater favorite than herself, and just at this time several trifling circumstances occurred to increase the feeling.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A collection of my trifling achievements would certainly be incomplete which contained no account of this very singular business.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Tomorrow, you shall only do me a very trifling piece of work.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)