trifling 1 of 2

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trifling

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verb

present participle of trifle

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of trifling
Adjective
And yet the movie’s insularity feels trifling and empty. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024 The cost to find these answers, even in the near term, is relatively trifling. Phil Plait, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2023 Aside from bacteria, the smallest genome belongs to the intestinal parasite Encephalitozoon intestinalis, with a trifling 2.3 billion base pairs. Kirsten Weir, Discover Magazine, 12 June 2011 Growing immunity against the coronavirus, repeatedly reinforced by vaccines and infections, could eventually tame COVID into a sickness as trifling as the common cold or, at worst, one on par with the seasonal flu. Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2022 Specific as Ozon’s approach here may be (nothing feels accidental or arbitrary), his lovingly made curio, which often borrows verbatim from its predecessor, comes off a bit tired and trifling. Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2022 Bonus: these tweets are usually about the most trifling and hilarious pop culture moments, so ... win win! Danielle Young, The Root, 2 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trifling
Adjective
  • Charging documents for Darien pointed to four unnamed minor victims.
    Racquel Bazos, Baltimore Sun, 27 Jan. 2025
  • The three teens, whose identities have not been released due to their minor status, are all being held at Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Facility.
    Christina Coulter, Fox News, 27 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • The snow started falling Sunday afternoon, with a slight mix of hail.
    Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 19 Jan. 2025
  • That slight warming trend is expected to continue Friday, when high temperatures reach the upper 30s, with lows in the upper teens.
    Matt Hubbard, Baltimore Sun, 19 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • The Pacers are flirting with the luxury tax.
    Tony East, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
  • The drama is contagious because Lexi is going after Ciara because Jesse Solomon keeps flirting with her.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2024
Verb
  • Deion Sanders began his NFL career with the Falcons in 1989, also playing baseball for the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves well into the 1990s.
    Dan Pompei, The Athletic, 26 Dec. 2024
  • Then something strange happened — the Falcons started playing like one of the best defenses in the league.
    Josh Kendall, The Athletic, 26 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • The stems are bright green and covered in small spines that look like fuzz or hair.
    Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Jan. 2025
  • Sitting in front of local leaders, Trump again wrongly blamed elements of the fire disaster on a lack of water resources coming from the Delta and environmental protections for the delta smelt, a small fish near extinction that has become a symbol of GOP frustration.
    Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 25 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • The object of their largesse was an obscure nonprofit called the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation which, for the better part of two decades, had quietly helped firefighters by raising funds for equipment — often things as nominal as gloves and flashlights — not covered in the city budget.
    David Wharton, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Ever since, however, TCU has started three wings alongside Van Lith and Sedona Prince, once again making the fifth-year senior the nominal point guard.
    Sabreena Merchant, The Athletic, 20 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • The ensuing reply-all showed little sympathy for the ninety-five-year-old school and its community.
    Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 18 Jan. 2025
  • The summer of 2020 did little to allay those fears: Inexperienced intelligence officers from the agency were deployed to Portland, Ore., to compile dossiers on people protesting against police violence.
    Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Organized theft is no petty crime; these are not one-off crimes of desperation or a mom lifting a can of formula to feed her baby.
    Cailey Locklair, Baltimore Sun, 27 Jan. 2025
  • In November 2023, Pryer filed a motion to terminate her remaining two years of probation based on a recent court ruling which held that a defendant convicted of a single petty offense may not be sentenced to both imprisonment and probation.
    Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 22 Jan. 2025

Thesaurus Entries Near trifling

Cite this Entry

“Trifling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trifling. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

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