Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use trifle in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Trifle means an English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream. Example: “You must not trifle with her affections.”

Examples of trifle by meaning

nounAn English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.

  • 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

verbTo deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.

  • You must not trifle with her affections.
  • But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, Penguin, published 1958, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 171

verbTo act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.

  • But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.1953 September 18, Saul Bellow, chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Augie March […], New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 405

verbTo inconsequentially toy with something.

  • She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, New York: Fawcett, published 1967, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 151

verbTo squander or waste.

  • You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away!1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1985, page 189

More sentences with trifle

  • Trifle is a favourite dessert of the English, but rivalled by pavlova in Australia and New Zealand.From the entry dessert
  • Could you lend me some money? I'm a trifle short of what I need to pay the rent.From the entry a trifle
  • He found his subordinate's puppyish enthusiasm a trifle wearing.From the entry puppyish
  • Use it to top other desserts but it pairs well in these yummy little trifle cups.2018, Angela Block, Redesign, page 157. From the entry no-fail
  • He thought he might have been ladling it on a trifle heavy.2000, William Gay, Provinces of Night, New York, NY: Anchor Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 94. From the entry beerbottle
  • “Maybe we’ll move away towards the west a trifle, and come down on Fiji from the north.”1957, Nevil Shute [pseudonym; Nevil Shute Norway], On the Beach, London: William Heinemann. From the entry a trifle
  • Marlowe," she told him quietly, "makes a big thing out of trifles.1953, Raymond Chandler, chapter 42, in The Long Good-bye, London: Hamish Hamilton, →OCLC; republished as The Long Goodbye, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry make a big thing out of
  • To the uninitiated the sight of strong men eagerly slapping themselves may be a trifle disconcerting.1953 March 6, “Penn State Students Do a Bit of ‘Schuhplattling’”, in Sunbury Daily Item, volume XVI, number 55, Sunbury, Pa., →OCLC, page…. From the entry schuhplattle
  • "What do you find funny about this?" I asked a trifle shortly.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 120. From the entry impishly
  • The housekeeper looked up over the top of her reading glasses a trifle dourly.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries. From the entry dourly
  • Any trifle would be welcome." His bull's bellow of laughter followed them into the lift.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html)…. From the entry poltergeist
  • The statement is, I think you will agree, a trifle disconcerting."1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond. From the entry disconcerting
  • "Here are my family heirlooms—a few decent pearls, my grandfather's collection of camei and other trifles—but who—?"1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados. From the entry camei
  • If they have a fault, they are a trifle broad in the beam.1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 1, in Island Nights' Entertainments. From the entry broad in the beam
  • "'Tis a trifle early, but I hearn tell that lyin' makes people hungry."1905, Charles Felton Pidgin, Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks. From the entry hearn
  • “Yes, eet was a, an amusing erotic trifle, I supposa.2015 February 15, “Tobacco”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 2, John Oliver (actor), via HBO. From the entry tame
  • We have been mealy-mouthed and weak-handed; we have trifled and temporised and the Food has grown and grown.2013, H.G. Wells, The H.G. Wells Anthology, →ISBN. From the entry weak-handed
  • Within her own domain, no one trifled with Charlotte Green.2005, Marc Simmons, New Mexico Mavericks: Stories from a Fabled Past, →ISBN, page 51. From the entry ironhandedly
  • This was done by "reefing." He put two fingers just inside the opening and lifted the lining a trifle.Myron M. Stearns, So You Lost Your Pocketbook?, in 1940, The Rotarian (volume 56, number 2, page 39). From the entry reef
  • She inbreathed sharply, then her eyes narrowed a trifle.1921, Octavus Roy Cohen, Midnight. From the entry inbreathe
  • He is a trifle discouraged, but he perseveres.c. 1918, P. G. Wodehouse, The Agonies of Writing a Musical Comedy. From the entry persevere
  • "He was just off his feed a trifle."1915, Jack London, chapter 12, in The Little Lady of the Big House. From the entry off one's feed
  • He pressed the accelerator down a trifle.1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mad King, A.C. McClurg, published 1926. From the entry dalliance
  • She wondered why he, who did not usually trouble over trifles, made such a mountain of this molehill.1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 7, p. 181. From the entry make a mountain out of a molehill
  • "MacQuibble's an impressionist," remarked Cripps a trifle apocryphally.1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 101. From the entry apocryphally
  • One or two members of the little community were inclined to become a trifle over joyous too often for their health.1900, Stewart Edward White, chapter 19, in The Westerners. From the entry overjoyous
  • “And I think what they mean is that China is back, it is powerful and it is not to be trifled with.”2017 September 23, Tom Phillips, quoting Orville Schell, “China finds its own Top Gun and Rambo in wave of patriotic movies”, in The…. From the entry jingoism
  • We were all dead beat, but Terry said I had better make three tray apple pies, two lemon meringues and 40 trifles.2008, Geraldine Murfin-Shaw, Sweet Chef, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 123. From the entry lemon meringue
  • "Has some blaggard trifled with you?"2005, Lisa Noeli, Waltz with a rogue, page 224. From the entry dowsabel
  • They ordered soda scones and sandwiches, Victoria sponge cake and cling peaches, choux pastries and flapjacks, Bakewell tart and trifle with extra cream.1999, Geraldine McCaughrean, “Devil Take the Hindmost”, in The Stones Are Hatching, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press…. From the entry bakewell tart
  • Glass display cases are filled with tempting delights — from schmoo torte and German chocolate cheesecake to English trifle and Key lime pie.1991 November 20, “Best of Winnipeg”, in The Winnipeg Sun, volume 11, number 273, Winnipeg, Man., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 3. From the entry schmoo torte
  • Doubtless there is a wider application of the term since a mere hen-cackle, a trifle, seems to have been the origin of the application.1941, Sidney John Baker, New Zealand Slang, A Dictionary of Colloquialisms, the First Comprehensive Survey Yet Made of Indigenous English…. From the entry hen-cackle
  • Commander Birch was a trifle uneasy when he found there was more than a popple on the sea; it was, in fact, distinctly choppy.1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 17, in Well Tackled!. From the entry uneasy
  • This is a tree-y course, like New Zealand, really good, good greens, well bunkered, a trifle on the short side, but full of interest.1912, P. A. Vaile, Horance G. Hutchinson, Henry Leach, chapter 35, in Essays on Golf. From the entry treey

Meaning of trifle

  1. noun An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
  2. noun Anything that is of little importance or worth.
  3. noun An insignificant amount of money.

Full definition of trifle

Questions about trifle in a sentence

How do you use trifle in a sentence?
Trifle is used as a noun and verb. For example: “You must not trifle with her affections.”
What is a short sentence with trifle?
“"Has some blaggard trifled with you?"”
What does trifle mean?
Trifle means an English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trifle (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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