Sample Sentences for
trifle
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

trifle as in:  a trifling matter

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Don't waste my time with trifling matters.
    trifling = unimportant
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    The third bedroom was a trifle small, but it would do just fine for Turtle.  (source)
    trifle = little
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    Over a handful of fluffy white kernels William relaxed a trifle.  (source)
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  • •
    I will not be exchanged for such a trifle.  (source)
    trifle = small amount
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    She felt so angry at Hecate and so tired of being manipulated by the gods that she wasn't going to let any trifling problems stand in her way.  (source)
    trifling = small
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    And in exchange for these sorts of trifles, we could prove generous to a fault….  (source)
    trifles = unimportant things
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    "You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!" he exclaimed; "we have trifled while you are in suffering!"†  (source)
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    Triflingly witty, Mr. McLean, but I would like you to account for your people's history of ineptitude.†  (source)
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    Merely a trifle!  (source)
    trifle = little thing
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    I met him once or twice fifteen years ago, some trifling legal matter.  (source)
    trifling = unimportant
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    ...for as Father says, trifles show character.  (source)
    trifles = small unimportant things
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    The laugh which accompanied this sally sounded perhaps a trifled forced and hard, but neither Sir Andrew nor Lord Tony were very keen observers.†  (source)
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    The moon rose in the sky as Montag walked, his lips moving just a trifle.  (source)
    trifle = a small amount
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trifle with as in:  trifle with her affections

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She is not a woman to trifle with or ignore.
trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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    The European Parliament refuses to be trifled with.
    trifled with = treated without respect
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    Kitty might be the baby of the family, but she is not someone to trifle with.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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    As someone who could make them famous among their peers, I was no longer a person to be trifled with.  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly or without respect
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    ...people who were not to be trifled with;  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly
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    You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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    To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting, "No trifling with me!"  (source)
    trifling with = treating without respect
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    But there they were, in the heart of it; on 'Change, amongst the merchants; who hurried up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often.  (source)
    trifled = played
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    My Lady trifles with the screen and makes them glitter more, again with that expression which in other times might have been so dangerous to the young man of the name of Guppy.†  (source)
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    I must not be trifled with, and I demand an answer.  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly or without respect
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    Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my heart sinks and my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a possibility.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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    But there were dangers in trifling with wildling women.  (source)
    trifling with = treating thoughtlessly or without respect
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    A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself!  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly
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    Gus wasn't a man to trifle with, especially when it came to money.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
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    They lurked in the deserted entrance hall after Christmas tea, waiting for Crabbe and Goyle who had remained alone at the Slytherin table, shoveling down fourth helpings of trifle.  (source)
    trifle = a kind of dessert
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    Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding —  (source)
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    After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.  (source)
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…cuffing Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle,  (source)
trifle = a kind of dessert
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