different between spark vs trifle

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: spärk, IPA^(key): /sp??k/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: späk, IPA^(key): /sp??k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k
• Homophone: SPARC

Etymology 1

From Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-Germanic *sprakô (compare Dutch spark and sprank, Middle Low German sparke), from Proto-Indo-European *sperg- (“to strew, sprinkle”) (compare Breton erc’h (“snow”), Latin sparg? (“to scatter, spread”), sparsus (“scattered”), Lithuanian sprógti (“to germinate”), Ancient Greek ??????? (spargá?, “to swell”), Avestan ????????????????????????????????????????? (frasparega, “branch, twig”), Sanskrit ??????? (parjanya, “rain, rain god”)).

Noun

spark (plural sparks)

1. A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire.
2. A short or small burst of electrical discharge.
3. A small, shining body, or transient light; a sparkle.
4. (figuratively) A small amount of something, such as an idea or romantic affection, that has the potential to become something greater, just as a spark can start a fire.
   • , Book IV, Chapter XVII

     But though we have, here and there, a little of this clear light, some sparks of bright knowledge

   • 2013, Phil McNulty, "[1]", BBC Sport, 1 September 2013:

     Everton's Marouane Fellaini looks one certain arrival but Moyes, who also saw United held to a draw by Chelsea at Old Trafford on Monday, needs even more of a spark in a midfield that looked laboured by this team's standards.

5. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Indomalayan genus Sinthusa.
6. (in plural sparks but treated as a singular) A ship's radio operator.
7. (Britain, slang) An electrician.

Synonyms

• (small particle of glowing matter): ember, gnast, funk
• (small amount of something, such as an idea, that has the potential to become something greater): beginnings, germ, glimmer

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Esperanto: sparko

Translations

Verb

spark (third-person singular simple present sparks, present participle sparking, simple past and past participle sparked)

1. (transitive, figuratively) To trigger, kindle into activity (an argument, etc).
2. (transitive) To light; to kindle.
   • 2009, Alex Jenson, The Serotonin Grand Prix (page 12)

     Byron sparked the cigarette. He sucked it dramatically and thrust it into Marko's hand.

3. (intransitive) To give off a spark or sparks.

Derived terms

• spark off
• sparkle

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably Scandinavian, akin to Old Norse sparkr (“sprightly”).

Noun

spark (plural sparks)

1. A gallant; a foppish young man.

   • The finest sparks and cleanest beaux.

   • Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the petty-fogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs Whitefield, “If she knew who that fine spark was?”

2. A beau, lover.

Verb

spark (third-person singular simple present sparks, present participle sparking, simple past and past participle sparked)

1. (intransitive) To woo, court; to act the gallant or beau.

Synonyms

• make love, romance, solicit; see also Thesaurus:woo

Derived terms

• sparkish
• sparker

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Anagrams

• K-spar, Karps, Parks, Praks, parks

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse spark, verbal noun to sparka (“to kick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spark/, [sb?????]

Noun

spark n (singular definite sparket, plural indefinite spark)

1. kick

Inflection

Verb

spark

1. imperative of sparke

Faroese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spa??k/

Noun

spark n (genitive singular sparks, plural spørk)

1. kick

Declension

Derived terms

Icelandic

Etymology

From sparka (“to kick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spar?k/
• Rhymes: -ar?k

Noun

spark n (genitive singular sparks, nominative plural spörk)

1. kick

Declension

Middle English

Noun

spark

1. Alternative form of sparke

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

spark n (definite singular sparket, indefinite plural spark, definite plural sparka or sparkene)

1. a kick (with a foot)

Derived terms

• brassespark
• frispark
• hjørnespark
• straffespark

Related terms

• sparke

Verb

spark

1. imperative of sparke

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

spark n (definite singular sparket, indefinite plural spark, definite plural sparka)

1. a kick (with a foot)

Derived terms

• brassespark
• frispark
• hjørnespark
• straffespark

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse spark, from sparka (“to kick”).

Noun

spark c

1. kick
2. kicksled; short for sparkstötting

Declension

Anagrams

• karps, parks, skarp

English

Etymology

From Middle English trifle, trifel, triful, trefle, truyfle, trufful, from Old French trufle (“mockery”), a byform of trufe, truffe (“deception”), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?a?f?l/
• Rhymes: -a?f?l
• Hyphenation: tri?fle

Noun

trifle (countable and uncountable, plural trifles)

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

   Coordinate terms: tiramisu, bread pudding

2. Anything that is of little importance or worth.

   Synonyms: bagatelle, minor detail, whiffle; see also Thesaurus:trifle

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene 3,^[1]

     Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ.

   • 1631, Michael Drayton, Nimphidia the Court of Fayrie in The Battaile of Agincourt, London: William Lee, p. 168,^[2]

     Olde Chaucer doth of Topas tell,

     Mad Rablais of Pantagruell,

     A latter third of Dowsabell,

     With such poore trifles playing:

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, London, p. 34,^[3]

     […] when they had the Character and Honour of a Woman at their Mercy, often times made it their Jest, and at least look’d upon it as a Trifle, and counted the Ruin of those, they had had their Will of, as a thing of no value.

   • 1871, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4,^[4]

     ‘And all about a rattle!’ said Alice, still hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such a trifle.

   1. An insignificant amount of money.
      • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act III, Scene 3,^[5]

        A trifle, some eight-penny matter.

      • 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter 9,^[6]

        He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums […]

      • 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, Chapter 30, p. 311,^[7]

        What’s eighty dollars? A trifle. An insignificant sum.

      • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York: Avon, 1976, p. 462,^[8]

        “It was bad of me then not to send the fifteen hundred dollars. I assumed it would be a trifle.”

        “Well, until a few months ago it was a trifle.”

3. A very small amount (of something).

   Synonyms: smidgen; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1742, Daniel Defoe, A tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain, London: J. Osborn et al., Volume 2, Letter II. Containing A Description of the City of London, p. 90, footnote,^[9]

     This Line leaves out […] Poplar and Black-wall, which are indeed contiguous, a Trifle of Ground excepted, and very populous.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 1, Chapter 2,^[10]

     There was a good deal of rustling and whispering behind the curtain, a trifle of lamp smoke, and an occasional giggle from Amy […]

   • 1932, Graham Greene, Stamboul Strain, London: Heinemann, Part 4, p. 180,^[11]

     “Take just a trifle of French mustard […] ”

4. A particular kind of pewter.
5. (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.

Derived terms

• a trifle

Translations

Verb

trifle (third-person singular simple present trifles, present participle trifling, simple past and past participle trifled)

1. (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.

   You must not trifle with her affections.

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene 1,^[12]

     […] Do not believe

     That, from the sense of all civility,

     I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56,^[13]

     “Miss Bennet,” replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, “you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with […] ”

   • 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, Penguin, 1958, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 171,^[14]

     But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective.

2. (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 27,^[15]

     […] playing and trifling are completely banished out of my mind […]

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking, 1960, Chapter 19, p. 405,^[16]

     But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.

3. (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 28,^[17]

     Mr. Micawber, leaning back in his chair, trifled with his eye-glass and cast his eyes up at the ceiling […]

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, New York: Fawcett, 1967, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 151,^[18]

     She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.

4. (transitive) To squander or waste.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,^[19]

     We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 62,^[20]

     For an honest and sober man will rather make that woman his wife, whom he seeth employed continually about her business, than one who makes it her business to trifle away her own and others time.

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 6,^[21]

     As it was, he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else.

   • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 189,^[22]

     You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away!

5. (transitive, obsolete) To make a trifle of, to make trivial.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 4,^[23]

     […] but this sore night

     Hath trifled former knowings.

Synonyms

• (toy with): fiddle
• (squander): fritter, wanton

Translations

See also

• trifle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• filter, filtre, firtle, lifter, relift

Portuguese

Noun

trifle m (plural trifles)

1. trifle (English dessert)