different between trifling vs niggling

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

English

Verb

niggling

1. present participle of niggle

Adjective

niggling

1. petty
   • 1863, Charles Darwin's letter to J. D. Hooker, 14th of July 1863

     My dear Hooker, I am getting very much amused by my tendrils, it is just the sort of niggling work which suits me, and takes up no time and rather rests me whilst writing.

Noun

niggling (plural nigglings)

1. A sensation that niggles.
   • 2009, Jenny Parratt, Feelings of Change: Stories of Having a Baby (page 10)

     Occasionally a paranoia or slight insecurity that is not based on reality will bring nigglings of that bad time.

Anagrams

• gingling