All 8 Uses of
trifle
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The original and more potent causes, however, lay in the rare perfection of his animal nature, the moderate proportion of intellect, and the very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients; these latter qualities, indeed, being in barely enough measure to keep the old gentleman from walking on all-fours.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)trifling = small quantities
- Nothing is too small or too trifling to undergo this change, and acquire dignity thereby.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1) *trifling = unimportant
- Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- This figure of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)trifle = small amount
- Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose doors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed to distil drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice, by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles; and sometimes, also, by a coarser expression, that fell upon the sufferer's defenceless breast like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound.
Chpt 5 (definition 1)trifles = things of small importance
- A mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself!
Chpt 12 (definition 2) *trifled with = treated thoughtlessly
- That is but a trifle, when a woman knows the world.
Chpt 22 (definition 1)trifle = thing of small importance
- There were trifles too, little ornaments, beautiful tokens of a continual remembrance, that must have been wrought by delicate fingers at the impulse of a fond heart.
Chpt 24 (definition 1)trifles = small things
Definitions:
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(1) (trifle as in: a trifling matter) something of small importance; or a small quantity
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(2) (trifle with as in: trifle with her affections) to treat somebody or something thoughtlessly or without respect