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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.

One who trifles. Waterland.

g; trouble; difficulty; troublesome business; fuss; bustle; as, to make a great ado about trifles. With much ado, he partly kept awake. Dryden. Let's follow to see the end of this ado. Shak.

A trifle; a thing of no importance. Rich trifles, serious bagatelles. Prior.

Occupied with, or pertaining to, belles-lettres. "An unlearned, belletristic trifler." M. Arnold.

To utter or tell unnecessarily, or in a thoughtless manner; to publish (secrets or trifles) without reserve or discretion. Udall. And yonder a vile physician blabbing The case of his patient. Tennyson.

assurance; as to a statement or belief; additional evidence; proof; convincing testimony. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. Shak.

To trifle in love; to stimulate affection or interest; to play the coquette; to deal playfully instead of seriously; to play (with); as, we have coquetted with political crime.

One Who fondles; a trifler; as, dalliers with pleasant words. Asham.

ptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer. Calamy. We have put off God, and dallied with his grace. Barrow.

To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle. [Obs.] Captains do so dandle their doings, and dally in the service, as it they would not have the enemy subdued. Spenser.

One who dangles about or after others, especially after women; a trifler. " Danglers at toilets." Burke.

To waste time in trifling employment; to trifle; to saunter. Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. Johnson. We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall. Thackeray.

One who wastes time in trifling employments; an idler; a trifler.

To loiter or trifle; to waste time.

A trifle which wastes time or distracts attention. Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. Swift. Dissipation of energy. Same as Degradation of energy, under Degradation.

A trifler; a simple fellow.

To trifle; to toy. -- v. t.

A fig; an insignificant trifle, no more than the snap of one's thumb; a sign of contempt made by the fingers, expressing. A fig for you. Steal! foh, a fico for the phrase. Shak.

moving as a fiddler does; to move the hands and fingers restlessy or in busy idleness; to trifle. Talking, and fiddling with their hats and feathers. Pepys.