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To trifle with; to deceive; to mock. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Trifles; things of no importance. Nonsense verses, lines made by taking any words which occur, but especially certain words which it is desired to recollect, and arranging them without reference to anything but the measure, so that the rhythm of the lines may aid in recalling the remembrance of the words.…

rrelevant and impertinent; something of comparative unimportance; utter insignificance; a trifle. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought. Is. xli. 24. 'T is nothing, says the fool; but, says the friend, This nothing, sir, will bring you to your end. Dryden.

Trifles; jests.

detached; fragmentary; hence, occasional; inconsiderable; as, odd jobs; odd minutes; odd trifles.

ct in insincere or deceitful manner; to play false; to equivocate; to shift; to dodge; to trifle. Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter. Shak. Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with eternal God for power. Tennyson.

To do a small business; to be busy about trifles; to piddle.

A small quantity; a trifle. Bacon.

To deal in trifles; to concern one's self with trivial matters rather than with those that are important. Ascham.

Hence, a thing of small value; a trifle. He . . . did not care a pin for her. Spectator.

To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless. "Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye." Chaucer. Men are apt to play with their healths. Sir W. Temple.

One who plays, or amuses himself; one without serious aims; an idler; a trifler. Shak.

To wade or move about with splashing; to dabble; also, to potter; trifle; idle. [Scot. & Dial. Eng.]

A careless person; a trifler. [R.]

A small matter; a trifle; a least consideration; a punctilio. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Shak. [He] cared not for God or man a point. Spenser.

To busy one's self with trifles; to labor with little purpose, energy, of effect; to trifle; to pother. Pottering about the Mile End cottages. Mrs. Humphry Ward.

To act inefficiently or idly; to trifle; to potter.

A trifle; a kickshaw. Donne.

pon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate.

One who wastes his energy about trifles. Emerson.