All 11 Uses
trifle
in
Ben Hur
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- If in narrative they dwelt long upon affairs of trifling moment; if one of them omitted nothing of detail in recounting the loss of a lamb, the relation between him and the unfortunate should be remembered: at birth it became his charge, his to keep all its days, to help over the floods, to carry down the hollows, to name and train; it was to be his companion, his object of thought and interest, the subject of his will; it was to enliven and share his wanderings; in its defense he might be called on to face the lion or robber—to die.†
Chpt 1.11
- The great events, such as blotted out nations and changed the mastery of the world, were trifles to them, if perchance they came to their knowledge.†
Chpt 1.11 *trifles = things of small importance
- As you see, I am in the time of life when curiosity is as ungovernable as it was in childhood, when to trifle with it is cruelty.†
Chpt 1.13trifle with = treat thoughtlessly or without respect
- For the first time, in conversation with me to-day, he trifled with our customs and God.†
Chpt 2.4 *trifled with = treated thoughtlessly or without respect
- The smallest bird cannot light upon the greatest tree without sending a shock to its most distant fibre; every mind is at times no less sensitive to the most trifling words.†
Chpt 4.11
- "Sheik Ilderim," said Ben-Hur, calmly enduring his gaze, "I pray thee not to think me trifling with thy just demand; but was there never a time in thy life when to answer such a question would have been a crime to thyself?"†
Chpt 4.13trifling with = treating thoughtlessly or without respect
- "With reserve, if the amount be trifling, have thy will," answered Sanballat.†
Chpt 5.11
- "I do not complain," his friend continued, "of the amount of the tax—a denarius is a trifle.†
Chpt 1.8
- He was angry; not as the irritable, from chafing of a trifle; nor was his anger like the fool's, pumped from the wells of nothing, to be dissipated by a reproach or a curse; it was the wrath peculiar to ardent natures rudely awakened by the sudden annihilation of a hope—dream, if you will—in which the choicest happinesses were thought to be certainly in reach.†
Chpt 4.5
- So clearly was the feeling shown, so vigorous its manifestation, that Messala, with all his boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further.†
Chpt 5.14
- Once—she might not tell the day or the year, for down in the haunted hell even time was lost—once the mother felt a dry scurf in the palm of her right hand, a trifle which she tried to wash away.†
Chpt 6.2
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) A trifle can refer to a kind of dessert. In classic literature, trifling can be a synonym for small talk.