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How To Use Trifling In A Sentence

  • The hurt or injury need not be serious or permanent but must be more than trifling or transient.
  • Then the pleasant little surprises of all kinds that we imagined; and the pleasant looks that greet us when we condescend to accept them; the patience that can translate our most unwarrantable "crossness", because there has been some trifling difficulty in obtaining the half of a star or the corner of a moon which it had pleased us to require, into "such a good sign of being really better"; and then our appetite (which the gods know is at that season singularly keen), how is it not tempted with unutterable dainties and friande morsels, all sorts of amateur cookery in our behalf, where Love himself has not disdained to turn the spit, and look into the stewpan! and all served up so gracefully on the small tray, covered with its delicate white damask cloth, arraying with more than mortal charms the moulds of crystal jelly and pure-looking blanc mange! Zoe: The History of Two Lives
  • The money involved was a trifling sum.
  • Spent on some trifling matter? THE WOLF AND THE DOVE
  • To the extent of such a trifling loan as a crownpiece to a man of your talents, I look upon Mr Pecksniff as certain; 'and seeing at this juncture that the expression of Mr Martin Chuzzlewit
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  • He drew from his pocket a sheet of folded paper and placed upon the end of his nose his famous gold 'lorgnon': "It is very trifling, one of those directives, as Monsieur de Moltke says, which serve to guide operations, a plan of action which we will modify after discussion. Cosmopolis — Complete
  • The chiefs left the ship displeased at what they called stingy conduct in the captain, as they were accustomed to receive trifling presents from the traders on the coast. Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River
  • Outside California these difficulties may seem fairly trifling.
  • He was the humorous and satirical idyllist _par excellence_, and laid the scenes of his romances in idyllic surroundings, using the trifling events of daily life to wonderful purpose. The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times
  • The child sat trifling with the burnt bread upon his plate.
  • And, what's even more galling, we've been told that the sum involved is comparatively trifling, a drop in the ocean of the department's annual budget of €41 billion.
  • When compared to the whole federal budget, the money spent on welfare is trifling, especially when you look at other, truly wasteful federal budget items.
  • This may seem a trifling matter considering his wealth but famous people don't often do that sort of thing. Times, Sunday Times
  • The child sat trifling with the burnt bread upon his plate.
  • It was something trifling; in fact, I didn't even remember what triggered it.
  • Little bits fall off the car, some trifling part has been improperly milled, a mechanic makes a mistake.
  • a trifling matter
  • What seems to many a trifling matter of wording could have profound consequences.
  • For will any of sound discretion approve of my being beaten as a boy, because, by playing at ball, I made less progress in studies which I was to learn, only that, as a man, I might play more unbeseemingly? and what else did he who beat me? who, if worsted in some trifling discussion with his fellow-tutor, was more embittered and jealous than I when beaten at ball by a play-fellow? The First Book
  • For those of a certain tribal cast of Irish-Australian mind, such questions of geography and chronology are trifling.
  • I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness; but there are moments when, if any one performs an act of kindness towards him, or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled. Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus
  • The leading pair brushed off one another going around the turn but it was only a trifling matter.
  • Because of their lack of self esteem and self-confidence, says Lucy, many self-harmers tend to have very extreme emotional reactions to things which to many people would seem trifling.
  • To the unrefined or under-bred person, the visiting-card is but a trifling and insignificant piece of paper; but to the cultured disciple of social law it conveys a subtle and unmistakable intelligence.
  • Trifling articles, like eggs or radishes, might be smuggled into a brown wicker basket with covers; but it did not consort with elegance to "trapes" home with anything that looked inconvenient or had legs sticking out of it. The Imperialist
  • Delaney was not for trifling with and while others around him were off their game he compensated, and then some more!
  • The child sat trifling with the burnt bread upon his plate.
  • They hope their words and deeds can cause the attention of other, peacockish , egocentric, ego abandon, often react to trifling bagatelle mood too intense, sometimes for no reason gets angry.
  • For the patient's sake as well as his own, he must endeavour to strike the medium between negligence and ridicule on the one hand, and too much solicitude about every trifling symptom on the other.
  • Christian should reluctantly give up, one by one, the pleasures of the world; and look back upon them, when relinquished, with eyes of wistfulness and regret: because he knows not the sweetness of the delights with which true Christianity repays those trifling sacrifices, and is greatly unacquainted with the _nature_ of that pleasantness which is to be found in the ways of Religion. A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.
  • But the Scottish champion didn't seem bothered by such trifling details, opening up an early five-point lead to close out the opening set in double quick time.
  • I took it, but my relief was mingled with insensible annoyance at the trifling penalty.
  • Outside California these difficulties may seem fairly trifling.
  • Set against estimates of the infrastructure needed to sustain GDP growth at about 8 per cent, the sum is trifling.
  • Humboldt considers the Mexican Indian as destitute of all imagination, though when to a certain degree educated, he attributes to him facility in learning, a clearness of understanding, a natural turn for reasoning, and a particular aptitude to subtilize and seize trifling distinctions. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 372, May 30, 1829
  • Alas! that love is certainly very lukewarm which can be extinguished by so trifling an offence; that scornful rigour, which is displayed so readily, sufficiently shows to me the depth of her affection. The Love-Tiff
  • I shall from this day take the firm resolution to study with renewed assiduity, to keep my attention always well fixed on whatever I am about, and to strive to become every day less trifling and more fit for what, if Heaven wills it, I'm some day to be. Archive 2008-01-01
  • The heterogeneous triflings which now, I am very sorry to say, occupy so much of our time, will be neglected; fashion's votaries will silently fall off; dishonest exertions for rank in society will be scorned; extravagance in toilet will be detested; that meager and worthless pride of station will be forgotten; the honest earnings of dependents will be paid; popular demagogues crushed; impostors unpatronized; true genius sincerely encouraged; and, above all, pawned integrity redeemed! History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
  • As a general rule an injunction will be refused only where the interference with the claimant's right is trifling or slight.
  • Roederer, Boulay, even the Second Consul himself, now perceived how trifling was their influence when they attempted to modify Bonaparte's plans, and two sections of the Council speedily decided that there should be a military commission to judge suspects and "deport" dangerous persons, and that the Government should announce this to the Senate, Corps Législatif, and Tribunate. The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 1 of 2)
  • Are you sure that you want to proceed against your neighbour over such a trifling matter?
  • Yet if the results of ‘public consultations’ are trifling, the effect on our political culture is insidious.
  • After having a a little descanted on this Adventure, we resolved to go to the Rose, to wash down our Disappointments, and try to meet some of our Acquaintance as they came out of the Play, and hear what Transactions, what Intrigues, and other little trifling News the House afforded that Evening. The Lining of the Patch-Work Screen
  • The impact of our emotional wellbeing on our health is not a trifling problem. Times, Sunday Times
  • Such men, where all else failed, could get themselves admitted into some smaller religious house by the interest of the patron; sometimes bringing in a trifling addition to the common property, sometimes simply 'pitchforked' into a vacancy, it is difficult to say how. The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886
  • Let me denounce this piffling, trifling, self-satisfied world; these horse-hair seats; these coloured photographs of piers and parades.
  • The girl sat there trifling with a pen.
  • Meanwhile they are mouldering up there on what might be some absolutely trifling offence.
  • Philip Hexton must have walked in and out quite a couple of miles, examining ventilating-doors, seeing that the boys who opened and shut them for the corves to pass were doing their duty, and the like; and, trifling as it may sound, a great deal depends in a coal-mine upon such Son Philip
  • Meanwhile they are mouldering up there on what might be some absolutely trifling offence.
  • It spoke of the difference of the two in the means and ends proposed, and of the trifling grievances of our fathers compared with the wrongs and sufferings of the slaves, which it forcibly characterized as unequalled by any others on the face of the earth. The Complete Works of Whittier
  • The fermentive action of the bile is trifling; it dissolves fats, to a certain extent, and is antiseptic, that is, it prevents putrefaction to which the chyme might be liable; it also seems to act as a natural purgative. Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
  • You will contrive to let my Mother have the enclosed letter as soon as possible, as she may want some trifling article before she starts. and if they agree to ride on Monday the 18th you will apprize me of it by letter to be received on Monday morning. Letter 133
  • Those men go on, as they say, in one uniform tenor of speaking, bringing nothing except their facility and equalness of language; or else they add something, like reliefs on a pedestal, and so they embellish their whole oration, with trifling ornaments of words and ideas. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
  • He is trifling with her
  • Singing for the most powerful man in the world is a trifling matter when you have the biggest global gig to think about. Times, Sunday Times
  • Zanders led the way through a dark, somber hall, wide and high-ceiled, to a farther gate, where a second gateman, trifling with a large key, unlocked a barred door at his bidding. The Financier
  • Outside California these difficulties may seem fairly trifling.
  • We see this even in so trifling a fact as that the same poison often similarly affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gallfly produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak-tree. XV. Recapitulation and Conclusion
  • `I go break his neck,' said Dayo, holding up a pair of unartistic hands that would have found the task trifling. INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS
  • Puccini was expert not only at describing the trifling matters of daily life, but also at using various melodies to expose the distinctive personality of each character.
  • y aun en albricias le di even gave a trifling fee al Escultor no sé qué. to the sculptor who carved it. Don Juan Tenorio
  • This would seem a trifling amount considering honey bees pollinate the majority of our fruits and vegetables and have been experiencing serious population decline. Edward Flattau: Frivolous Pork
  • Surely, in the face of such injustice, the trifling matter of a turkey can wait? Times, Sunday Times
  • Almost all the highways of Italy were erected on a foundation four feet deep; when a space of marshy ground or bog was on the track of the road, it was filled up; and when any part of it was mountainous, its precipitousness was reduced to a gentle and trifling inclination from the general line of the road. A Philosophical Dictionary
  • The sums deducted in fees may seem trifling but, over a number of years, they eat away at savings. Times, Sunday Times
  • He had not intended this kind of recrimination, but he was exasperated with her wearied acceptance of his reproaches and by a sudden conviction that his long-cherished grievance against her now that he had voiced it was inadequate, mean, and trifling. A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's and Other Stories
  • I have an aversion to tame poetry; at best, perhaps the art is the sublimest of the difficiles nugae; to measure or rhyme prose is trifling without being difficult. Selected English Letters
  • Sometimes it can also be something trifling like getting a mosquito bite. The Sun
  • Such stuff may not have seemed so trifling to women playgoers, since women exerted greater control over movable objects than did men.
  • Sometimes it can also be something trifling like getting a mosquito bite. The Sun
  • Persicaria to grow in solutions of humate of potash, and found a very trifling diminution in the quantity of humic acid present; but the value of his experiments is invalidated by his having omitted to ascertain whether the diminution of humic acid which he observed was really due to absorption by the plant. Elements of Agricultural Chemistry
  • He was not a cruel man, but he held landsmen and women in a kind of placid contempt and so felt little sympathy for their trifling complaints. The Mistaken Wife
  • To found a national character has never been a trifling matter.
  • The drapery is Greek, with one trifling variation, -- the fastening of the dress is shown upon the right shoulder. The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1886, Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 6, June, 1886
  • You may be a little puzzled that two of the country's biggest intelligences should be so preoccupied by such a trifling matter as the future of a second-rate footie outfit.
  • I am sensible that the mention of such a circumstance may appear trifling
  • Burgundian" is the name given, since the reign of Charles VI., to those noisy detonations, the result of which is to fling upon the carpet or the clothes a little coal or ember, the trifling nucleus of Study of a Woman
  • We made signals of distress to them for something to drink, which they understood; and on receiving some trifling presents of knives, and some buttons cut off our coats, they brought us a cag of good water, which we emptied in a minute, and then sent it back to be filled again. Voyage of H.M.S. Pandora Despatched to Arrest the Mutineers of the 'Bounty' in the South Seas, 1790-1791
  • I perceived within myself, saying, "He is disturbed, and listens to my advice with impatience;" and, having called the sahib diwan, or lord high treasurer, in virtue of a former intimacy that subsisted between us, I stated his case and spoke so fully upon his skill and merits, that he put him in nomination for a trifling office. The Persian Literature, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan, Volume 2
  • The hurt or injury need not be serious or permanent but must be more than trifling or transient.
  • But aside from such trifling accomplishments, the superhero is also symbolic of an era of remarkable technological change.
  • Pao-yü, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part, brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but ingenious nick-nack. Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books
  • asteria" of Pliny (so called from their containing a movable six-rayed star), are to be had at Ratnapoora and for very trifling sums. Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Volume 1 (of 2)
  • And, O my Guardian Angel, too remissive of thy Charge! why had I not some secret Warnings of my future Fate? why did I range so long in Foreign Courts, in search of trifling Pleasures, and unavailing Knowledge, while my The Fatal Secret: or, Constancy in Distress
  • Those who disclaim trifling and obvious qualities are called humbugs and are more contemptible; and sometimes this seems to be boastfulness, like the Spartan dress; for both excess and great deficiency are boastful. The NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
  • But this servant then met a fellow servant who owed him a trifling sum. Times, Sunday Times
  • It was such a trifling sum of money to argue about!
  • It is the relationship between the street thug, Arnold, and the siblings that awakens the sleeping racism within this trifling trichotomy. Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi (copy)
  • The fermentive action of the bile is trifling; it dissolves fats, to a certain extent, and is antiseptic, that is, it prevents putrefaction to which the chyme might be liable; it also seems to act as a natural purgative. Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
  • Unprepared for such transgressions, the sort of penances handed out by the confession booths suddenly seemed rather trifling.
  • It is a trifling matter on a weekend when there will be a momentous meeting of the Old Firm. Times, Sunday Times
  • Almost penniless, she bequeathed a "few trifling memorials' to friends. PERDITA: The Life of Mary Robinson
  • It is a pity that such an ability as him should be employed about such trifling matters.
  • The sign on the door tells the visitor he can have a tooth extracted for a trifling sum.
  • In the third place, Her Majesty's authorities are not concentrating a military force at the Grand Falls; the same trifling force of sixteen men is now stationed at the post of the Grand Falls which has been stationed there for the last twelvemonth. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 3, part 2: Martin Van Buren
  • You end up with ministers claiming that they were too busy and important to pay attention to trifling matters, such as declaring 100,000. Times, Sunday Times
  • Or perhaps he is shot with a Winchester rifle, this being the usual mode of despatching a friend who has asked another to put him out of the world on account, perhaps, of some trifling but troublesome ailment such as earache or neuralgia, which the sufferer imagines to be incurable. [ From Paris to New York by Land
  • It was such a trifling sum of money to argue about!
  • He drew from his pocket a sheet of folded paper and placed upon the end of his nose his famous gold 'lorgnon': "It is very trifling, one of those directives, as The French Immortals Series — Complete
  • I thought the "trifling trichotomy" was kinda clever, too! Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi (copy)
  • It (the race welfare) alone corresponds to the profoundness with which it is felt, to the seriousness with which it appears, to the importance which it attributes even to the trifling details of its sphere and occasion. The Kempton-Wace Letters
  • Both Morris and Pemberton noted the first small submission, the trifling point of the acceptance of a name. LOHENGRIN
  • The extra money had gone, I couldn't exactly say how, in sundry "trifling expenditures," such as pomatum, a scarf-pin, and a steel chain for my waistcoat, all of which it had seemed no harm to indulge in, especially as they were very cheap, under my altered circumstances. My Friend Smith A Story of School and City Life
  • Fortunately, the stormy waves caused trifling damage to the boat.
  • a "bibliomane" who in his dreams supposes himself to be purchasing "early editions on vellum" for "trifling" sums (18). close window 'Wedded to Books': Bibliomania and the Romantic Essayists
  • The Englishman can no more be trifling and light-hearted in the Gallic manner than a Polar bear can dance the _maxixe brésilienne_ in the jungle. Nights in London
  • We are not talking trifling sums here. Times, Sunday Times
  • The sign on the door tells the visitor he can have a tooth extracted for a trifling sum.
  • Those who disclaim trifling and obvious qualities are called humbugs and are more contemptible; and sometimes this seems to be boastfulness, like the The Nicomachean Ethics
  • And yet to save a trifling outlay compared with the injustice now done, the representative of Her Majesty is compelled to carry about under his skirts a parcel of convictism; to deposit these tokens of imperial interest he is driven to have recourse to artifice, trickery and falsehood. A Source Book of Australian History
  • But human rights are not trifling matters and the EU, if it is to remain true to its founding principles, must not gloss over such matters.
  • Why does this sort of trifling semantic difference matter?
  • Refrain from killing knowingly even the trifling insects like a louse, a bug or a mosquito.
  • It definitely is worth the joy of leaving a bank over something as seemingly trifling as a 6 charge. Times, Sunday Times
  • Harriet (will you ask) mean l x by thus trifling with you, and at this time particu-larly? Sir Charles Grandison
  • Without appearing to suggest anything beyond a trifling blemish in this story, replete as it is with edifying illustrations of the frailties of human nature, it would be well to remember that the helmet shell (CASSIS FLAMMEA) is not nacreous and could not therefore produce a true pearl, but merely g porcellaneous concretion, which, however, might possess a most attractive tint, possibly pale salmon or orange. Tropic Days
  • We see this even in so trifling a circumstance as that the same poison often similarly affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gallfly produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak-tree. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
  • What Halberstam and Berube share, ultimately, is a plain impatience with if not disdain for trifling old literature. Satirical
  • We were to make for Chigwell in four glass coaches, each with a trifling company of six or eight inside, and a little boy belonging to the projectors on the box — and to start from the residence of the projectors, Woburn – place, Russell – square, at half – past ten precisely. Sketches by Boz
  • The telescope makes claims for the internet look trifling.
  • This is not some trifling matter. The Sun
  • This figure now seems trifling in relation to recent double-digit domestic energy cost rises. Times, Sunday Times
  • Any perceived manipulation of honours for political purposes is no trifling matter. Times, Sunday Times
  • To dissipate in some trifling measure her abiding sense of the murkiness of human life she went to the "linhay" or lean-to shed, which formed the root-store of their dwelling and abutted on the fuelhouse. The Return of the Native
  • I went quietly about the room, picking up the discarded clothes, straightening the trifling disorder on the table, putting fresh charcoal in the brazier, adding a pinch of elecampane to sweeten the smoke. Sick Cycle Carousel
  • Suddenly my concerns about looking a bit sweaty in public feel rather trifling. Times, Sunday Times
  • Dressed as I was in the mollah bashi’s clothes, my first care was to make such alterations in them that they should not hold me up to suspicion, and this I did for a trifling expense at an old clothes’ shop, although, at the same time, I took care not to part with any of the valuable articles which had fallen into my possession. The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan
  • There are too many penalties in the game, and too many for trifling infringements.
  • To the extent of such a trifling loan as a crownpiece to a man of your talents, I look upon Mr Pecksniff as certain;’ and seeing at this juncture that the expression of Mr The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit
  • She was celebrated for her poetic talent, her stunning beauty during her youth, her trifling with amorous men, and her suffering from decrepitude and destitution in old age.
  • Have they not, as Paul says, become vain in their disputations, always trifling about universals, formalities, connotations, and various other foolish words?
  • It is not very easy to see how such very trifling surnames as this last came into existence, but its exiguity is surpassed in the case of a prominent French airman who bears the appropriately buoyant name of The Romance of Names
  • There is a general keeping in this gorgeous equipage, which is highly creditable to the taste of the marchioness, for the marquis, "good easy man," (though a Bruce), he is too much engaged preserving his game at Ro-er-n park, and keeping up the game in St. St.phen's (where his influence is represented by no less than eight "sound men and true"), to attend to these trifling circumstances. The English Spy An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous. Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life
  • He sold the shares for a trifling personal gain of around $300.
  • Fortunately, the stormy waves caused trifling damage to the boat.
  • 'I may be able to form an estimate of how I have spent my leisure time, whether I have been trifling it away or turning it to any particular advantage.
  • He is trifling it away; but no matter.
  • Silica, indeed, if at all capable of producing a beneficial effect, ought to be useful to these crops, either by strengthening the straw, or stems of graminaceous plants, or otherwise benefiting them; but, after deducting the amount of silica from the total amount of mineral matters in the wheat produced from one acre, only a trifling quantity of other and more valuable fertilizing ash constituents of plants will be left. Talks on Manures A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject
  • But aside from such trifling accomplishments, the superhero is also symbolic of an era of remarkable technological change.
  • Fortunately, the stormy waves caused trifling damage to the boat.
  • This figure now seems trifling in relation to recent double-digit domestic energy cost rises. Times, Sunday Times
  • At last they pointed out a good place for an encampment, receiving in return a trifling _backshish_, collected from the whole caravan. The Story of Ida Pfeiffer and Her Travels in Many Lands
  • His movements were of an impossible circumstantiality, out of all proportion to the trifling service she had asked of him; for, at heart, she cared as little about the rushes as about anything else. Maurice Guest
  • England's batting hero shrugged off such trifling concerns, laughed at the nine fielders posted on boundary patrol, and promptly lofted a six over them.
  • If we were but nearer, I might send what the Addiscombe gardener calls the empties back again at trifling cost. Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle
  • Nothing could have been clearer, but Floyd, whom Bruce Catton generously describes as a bumbling incompetent, ignored the letter because, among its wealth of cogent information, it contained one trifling error - the writer stated that Brown had an agent "in an armoury in Maryland". THE NUMBERS
  • It is only to be deprecated in so far as there is a danger, which experience shows to be no trifling one.
  • With escalating club fees, trifling base salaries and percentages taken off credit card payments, that is an interesting question indeed.
  • Sometimes it can also be something trifling like getting a mosquito bite. The Sun
  • The operation of cutting the hymen is a trifling one. Woman Her Sex and Love Life
  • The message was of the brotherhood of man, of the trifling nature of outward differences when we are all the same inside. WHEN SCOTLAND RULED THE WORLD: The Story of the Golden Age of Genius, Creativity and Exploration
  • “A trifling dispute,” said the Gothic leader, with a firm but gentle tone of voice, “appears to have arisen between the two nations; but it may be productive of the most dangerous consequences, unless the tumult is immediately pacified by the assurance of our safety, and the authority of our presence.” The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
  • Angelina burst into tears -- though a sentimental lady, she had not yet acquired the art of _bursting into tears_ upon every trifling occasion. Tales and Novels — Volume 01
  • And here is the Duchess of Alba, tearing at her hair in a rage over some trifling remark.
  • If this refusal is the result of an offended sensibility, you cannot exert yourself too warmly in its consolation; even if it is from pride, it has a just claim to your concessions, since she thinks you have injured it; yet pause before you act, may it not be merely from a confidence of power that loves to tyrannize over its slaves, by playing with their chains? or a lurking spirit of coquetry, that desires to regain the liberty of trifling with some new Sir Sedley Clarendel? or, perhaps, with Sir Sedley himself? ' Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth
  • A widely publicized slogan says that there are no trifling matters where the interests of the masses are concerned.
  • And prejudgment is such a trifling little consideration we really shouldn’t give it a second thought, should we? The Volokh Conspiracy » “We Cannot Ask a Man [Being Considered for the Supreme Court] What He Will Do”
  • The broken tales and their disembodied inhabitants are too sketchy and isolated to incite empathy, and the theme of guilt and absolution has little plot and character for support, so the whole thing feels trifling and weak.
  • It means the act of dallying, flirting, toying or trifling.
  • The company was reduced to mentioning these rather trifling things because there really wasn't much else of note. Times, Sunday Times
  • But this wonder will cease when I inform you, that the hallowing out of a chamber in the trunk of a baobab is a mere bagatelle, and costs but trifling labour. Ran Away to Sea
  • The only contract resulting from the purchase was for the trifling job of producing directional rudders for the planes.
  • But aside from such trifling accomplishments, the superhero is also symbolic of an era of remarkable technological change.
  • He had the jurisdiction of praefect of the city, for the first time, during the Latin festival; during which the most celebrated advocates brought before him, not short and trifling causes, as is usual in that case, but trials of importance, notwithstanding they had instructions from Claudius himself to the contrary. De vita Caesarum
  • Against that, 30,000 is a trifling sum. Times, Sunday Times
  • For will any of sound discretion approve of my being beaten as a boy, because, by playing a ball, I made less progress in studies which I was to learn, only that, as a man, I might play more unbeseemingly? and what else did he who beat me? who, if worsted in some trifling discussion with his fellow-tutor, was more embittered and jealous than I when beaten at ball by a play-fellow? The Confessions
  • A very good "irrigator" can be bought of any tinsmith at a trifling cost, and should be constantly at hand on every stock farm. Special Report on Diseases of the Horse
  • The moral: trifling liaisons can become serious finance issues.
  • The fact that the book is not especially well written or in any way plausible has almost become a trifling irrelevance.
  • Divorce proceedings also require full disclosure of all the financial affairs of both parties, no matter how trifling they may seem.
  • You might think that these are mere trifling matters.
  • This figure now seems trifling in relation to recent double-digit domestic energy cost rises. Times, Sunday Times
  • In this view it becomes of no mean importance to notice and record the strangest ignorance, the most putid fables, impertinent, trifling, ridiculous disputes, and more ridiculous pugnacity in the defence and retention of the subjects disputed. Literary Remains, Volume 1
  • The little advantages of taking a regiment or two prisoners, or cutting another to pieces, are but trifling articles in the great account; they are only the pence, the pounds are yet to come; and I take it for granted, that neither the French, nor the Court of Vienna, will have 'le dementi' of their main object, which is unquestionably Hanover; for that is the Complete Project Gutenberg Earl of Chesterfield Works

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