Word.ws English Dictionary

piffle

UK/ˈpɪf.əl/

piffle noun: nonsense, foolish talk.

Noun

piffle (uncountable)

  1. Nonsense, foolish talk.
    • The wafflier the piffle, the more sharply Mr Nicholson wields his skewer.2008 November 27, “Walking: More than gadding about”, in The Economist
    • The move is obviously pure piffle: a dumbshow designed to placate (or at least entertain) the conservative base while distracting and antagonising rivals.2022 May 31, James Vincent, “Boris Johnson’s move to bring back imperial units is pure piffle – and simply unfathomable”, in The Guardian

Verb

piffle (third-person singular simple present piffles, present participle piffling, simple past and past participle piffled)

  1. To act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner.
    Synonyms:
    trifle, twaddle
  2. To waste, to fritter away.
  3. (dated) To be squeamish or delicate.

piffle meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

piffle in Tamil

உளறல், பிதற்றல்

piffle in Malayalam

നിസ്സാരകാര്യം, തുച്ഛവസ്തു, അസംബന്ധം, വിഡ്ഡിത്തം

Synonyms of piffle

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of piffle

Forms of piffle

third-person singular presentpiffles
present participlepiffling
past participlepiffled
pastpiffled

Origin of piffle

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”).

Words formed from piffle

Words that rhyme with piffle

Questions about piffle

What does piffle mean?
Piffle means nonsense, foolish talk.
What is piffle in Tamil?
Piffle in Tamil is உளறல், பிதற்றல். See Piffle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is piffle?
Piffle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce piffle?
Piffle is pronounced /ˈpɪf.əl/ (UK).

Words near piffle in the dictionary

  1. pifferaros
  2. pifferi
  3. piffero
  4. Piffers
  5. piffing
  6. piffle
  7. piffled
  8. piffler
  9. pifflers
  10. piffles
  11. piffling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: piffle (page history and authors); piffle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); piffle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-piffle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “piffle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piffle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.