Trifle Meaning
/ˈtɹaɪfəl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
nounAnything that is of little importance or worth.
Sentence Examples
Perfection is a trifle dull.
Don't worry about such a trifle thing.
I paid only a trifle for the picture.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She was upset over a ____, like a missing button on her shirt.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She made a delicious fruit ____ for dessert, with several layers of sponge cake, custard, and fresh sweet cream today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English trifle, trifel, triful, trefle, truyfle, trufful, from Old French trufle (“mockery”), a byform of trufe, truffe (“deception”), of uncertain origin.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It is interesting to watch the surface joviality on screen while racism is layered between courses like soggy trifles."
— 2020 May 27, Kieran Yates, “Fifteen years of TV dinners: why Come Dine With Me has endured”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
"Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ."
— c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
"Olde Chaucer doth of Topas tell, / Mad Rablais of Pantagruell, / A latter third of Dowsabell, / With such poore trifles playing:"
— 1627, Michaell [i.e., Michael] Drayton, “Nimphidia. The Court of Fayrie.”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for William Lee, […], →OCLC:
"[W]hen they had the Character and Honour of a VVoman at their Mercy, often times made it their Jest, and at least look’d upon it as a Trifle, and counted the Ruin of thoſe, they had had their VVill of, as a thing of no value."
— 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 34:
"‘And all about a rattle!’ said Alice, still hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a trifle."
— 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She was upset over a ____, like a missing button on her shirt.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She made a delicious fruit ____ for dessert, with several layers of sponge cake, custard, and fresh sweet cream today.