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trifle
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

trifle as in:  a trifling matter

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    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
  • •
    As if to say: This is a trifle.  (source)
    trifle = something of small importance
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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    He said that the POWs had complained of "trifle things" and had used epithets to refer to the Japanese.  (source)
    trifle = unimportant
  • •
    Dad said we should stay vigilant, but by winter my attention had shifted back to the trifling dramas of my own life.  (source)
  • •
    And in exchange for these sorts of trifles, we could prove generous to a fault….  (source)
    trifles = unimportant things
  • •
    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)
  • •
    Triflingly witty, Mr. McLean, but I would like you to account for your people's history of ineptitude.†  (source)
  • •
    Over a handful of fluffy white kernels William relaxed a trifle.  (source)
    trifle = little
  • •
    Would anyone bother with a trifling robbery when there was death at every door?  (source)
    trifling = small
  • •
    She wondered why he, who did not usually trouble over trifles, made such a mountain of this molehill.  (source)
    trifles = unimportant things
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    He trifled about, hoping that she was somewhere in the neighborhood and would soon return.†  (source)
  • •
    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

•
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
  • •
    Kitty might be the baby of the family, but she is not someone to trifle with.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
  • •
    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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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself!  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly
  • •
    Gus wasn't a man to trifle with, especially when it came to money.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
  • •
    But there were dangers in trifling with wildling women.  (source)
    trifling with = treating thoughtlessly or without respect
  • •
    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
  • •
    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)
    trifles with = treats thoughtlessly or without respect
  • •
    ...people who were not to be trifled with;  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly
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    But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.  (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
  • •
    The thing failed this time, however, so the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling that they had not trifled with fortune, but had fulfilled all the requirements that belong to the business of treasure-hunting.  (source)
    trifled with = treated thoughtlessly or without respect
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    I don't trifle with him; but then, I have nothing to do with him.  (source)
    trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
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rare meaning

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
  • •
    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
  • •
    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)
  • •
    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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