All 14 Uses of
trifle
in
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- Dear me, for what trifling offenses the most of those forty-seven men and women were shut up there!†
Chpt 18
- There are conditions under which an effort to break it may have some chance—that is, some small, some trifling chance—of success.†
Chpt 23
- It had always been my custom to stand when in his presence; even at the council board, except upon those rare occasions when the sitting was a very long one, extending over hours; then I had a trifling little backless thing which was like a reversed culvert and was as comfortable as the toothache.†
Chpt 27
- The door stood a trifle ajar.
Chpt 29 *trifle = little
- They wore their plumed hats, right along, except that whenever one addressed himself directly to the king, he lifted his hat a trifle just as he was beginning his remark.†
Chpt 2
- I told him that this was a sort of miracle that required a trifle of preparation, and that it would be sudden death to ever talk about these preparations to anybody.†
Chpt 7
- At the same time there was another power that was a trifle stronger than both of us put together.†
Chpt 8
- In a week or two now, cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars, and also a trifle of gold, would be trickling in thin but steady streams all through the commercial veins of the kingdom, and I looked to see this new blood freshen up its life.†
Chpt 14
- These shirts cost me nothing but just the mere trifle for the materials—I furnished those myself, it would not have been right to make him do that—and they sold like smoke to pilgrims at a dollar and a half apiece, which was the price of fifty cows or a blooded race horse in Arthurdom.†
Chpt 22
- You will see that by these figures: We touched a trifle over 700 of the 800 patients; at former rates, this would have cost the government about $240; at the new rate we pulled through for about $35, thus saving upward of $200 at one swoop.†
Chpt 26
- I couldn't venture to tell him that the miller-gun was a little invention of my own, and that I had officially ordered that every shopkeeper in the kingdom keep them on hand and sell them at government price—which was the merest trifle, and the shopkeeper got that, not the government.†
Chpt 31
- I said to Marco and his wife: "Good folk, here is a little trifle for you"—handing the miller-guns as if it were a matter of no consequence, though each of them contained fifteen cents in solid cash; and while the poor creatures went to pieces with astonishment and gratitude, I turned to the others and said as calmly as one would ask the time of day: "Well, if we are all ready, I judge the dinner is.†
Chpt 32
- He said, with a trifle of hesitancy: "But—but—ye cannot fail to grant that two mills a day is better than one."†
Chpt 33
- Yes—but I thought the other man might have some little trifle at stake in it, too; and even his wife and children, poor creatures.†
Chpt 33
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
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(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Less commonly, a trifle can refer to a kind of dessert. In classic literature, trifling can be a synonym for small talk.