Word.ws English Dictionary

frivol

frivol verb: to behave frivolously.

Verb

frivol (third-person singular simple present frivols, present participle (US) frivoling or (UK) frivolling, simple past and past participle (US) frivoled or (UK) frivolled)

  1. (intransitive) To behave frivolously.
    • “I will act, dance, ride, frivol, talk scandal, dine out, and appropriate the legitimate captives of any woman I choose, until I d-r-r-rop, or a better woman than I puts me to shame before all Simla, — and it's dust and ashes in my mouth while I'm doing it!”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 20
  2. (intransitive) To trifle.

Noun

frivol (plural frivols)

  1. An unserious person; a shallow person.
  2. An idle diversion or pastime; a frivolity.

Forms of frivol

Verb
third-person singular presentfrivols
present participle USfrivoling
present participle UKfrivolling
past participle USfrivoled
past USfrivoled
past participle UKfrivolled
past UKfrivolled
Noun
pluralfrivols

Origin of frivol

From French frivole, from Latin frīvolus (“trifling, worthless”).

Words formed from frivol

Questions about frivol

What does frivol mean?
Frivol means to behave frivolously.
What part of speech is frivol?
Frivol can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of frivol?
The past tense of frivol is frivoled.

Words near frivol in the dictionary

  1. Friuli
  2. Friuli-Venezia Giulia
  3. Friulian
  4. Friulians
  5. frivilous
  6. frivol
  7. frivoled
  8. frivolent
  9. frivoler
  10. frivolers
  11. frivoling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frivol (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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