All 9 Uses of
trifle
in
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- At length a trifle snapt our connections; for, a great noise happening near the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see what was the matter.†
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- But he knew little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in everything said, or was for ever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation.†
- He began his paper, however, and, after carrying it on three quarters of a year, with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered it to me for a trifle; and I, having been ready some time to go on with it, took it in hand directly; and it prov'd in a few years extremely profitable to me.†
- Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.†
- Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.†
- This being acquir'd and establish'd, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv'd in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain'd rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place.†
- Some may think these trifling matters not worth minding or relating; but when they consider that tho' dust blown into the eyes of a single person, or into a single shop on a windy day, is but of small importance, yet the great number of the instances in a populous city, and its frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence, perhaps they will not censure very severely those who bestow some attention to affairs of this seemingly low nature.†
- But those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some trifling point of ceremony.†
- That the assessors were honest and discreet men under an oath to assess fairly and equitably, and that any advantage each of them might expect in lessening his own tax by augmenting that of the proprietaries was too trifling to induce them to perjure themselves.†
Definition:
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(trifle as in: a trifling matter) something of small importance; or a small quantity