Word.ws English Dictionary

piffling

piffling is the present participle and gerund of piffle.

Meaning of piffle

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.

See all 4 meanings of piffle

Adjective

piffling (comparative more piffling, superlative most piffling)

  1. (informal) petty; unimportant
    Synonyms:
    piffly

Synonyms of piffling

Forms of piffling

comparativemore piffling
superlativemost piffling

Words formed from piffling

Questions about piffling

What does piffling mean?
Piffling means petty; unimportant.
What is piffling the present participle and gerund of?
Piffling is the present participle and gerund of piffle.
What part of speech is piffling?
Piffling is an adjective.

Words near piffling in the dictionary

  1. piffle
  2. piffled
  3. piffler
  4. pifflers
  5. piffles
  6. piffling
  7. pifflingly
  8. piffly
  9. piffs
  10. piffy on a rock bun
  11. pifithrin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: piffling (page history and authors); piffle (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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Cite this entry: “piffling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piffling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.