different between frivolity vs trifling

English

Etymology

From French frivolité

Noun

frivolity (countable and uncountable, plural frivolities)

1. frivolous act
2. state of being frivolous

Related terms

• frivolous

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?a?fli?/

Adjective

trifling (comparative more trifling, superlative most trifling)

1. Trivial, or of little importance.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 234a.

     […] it doesn't take him long to make any of them, and he sells them for some trifling sum of money.

2. Idle or frivolous.
3. (African-American Vernacular) Of suspicious character, typically secretive or deceitful; shady.
   • 2001, Glenda Howard, Cita's World

     My hand was aching to slap that silly heifer. I told her to take her trifling ass down to Burger King and get herself a job flipping burgers […]

Synonyms

• trivial
• inconsequential
• petty
• See also Thesaurus:insignificant

Related terms

• trifle

Translations

Noun

trifling (plural triflings)

1. The act of one who trifles; frivolous behaviour.
   • 1845, George Croly, Samuel Warren, Marston, or the Memoirs of a Statesman

     He writes on the principle, of course, that in one's dotage we are privileged to return to the triflings of our infancy, and that Downing Street cannot be better employed in these days than as a chapel of ease to Eton.

Translations

Verb

trifling

1. present participle of trifle

Anagrams

• filtring, flirting