Chapter Tricker to Trigamous of T by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair.

With such poor trifles playing.

Drayton.

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

Shak.

Small sands the mountain, moments make year,
And frifles life.

Young.

2. A dish composed of sweetmeats, fruits, cake, wine, etc., with syllabub poured over it.

Trifle
(Tri"fle), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Trifled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Trifling ] [OE. trifelen, truflen. See Trifle, n.] To act or talk without seriousness, gravity, weight, or dignity; to act or talk with levity; to indulge in light or trivial amusements.

They trifle, and they beat the air about nothing which toucheth us.

Hooker.

To trifle with, to play the fool with; to treat without respect or seriousness; to mock; as, to trifle with one's feelings, or with sacred things.

Trifle
(Tri"fle), v. t.

1. To make of no importance; to treat as a trifle. [Obs.] Shak.

2. To spend in vanity; to fritter away; to waste; as, to trifle away money. "We trifle time." Shak.

Trifler
(Tri"fler) n. One who trifles. Waterland.

Trifling
(Tri"fling) a. Being of small value or importance; trivial; paltry; as, a trifling debt; a trifling affair. — Tri"fling*ly, adv. — Tri"fling*ness, n.

Trifloral
(Tri*flo"ral Tri*flo"rous) a. [Pref. tri- + L. flos, floris, flower.] (Bot.) Three-flowered; having or bearing three flowers; as, a triflorous peduncle.

Trifluctuation
(Tri*fluc`tu*a"tion) n. [Pref. tri- + fluctuation.] A concurrence of three waves. [Obs.] "A trifluctuation of evils." Sir T. Browne.

Trifoliate
(Tri*fo"li*ate Tri*fo"li*a`ted) a. [Tri- + foliate. Cf. Trefoil.] (Bot.) Having three leaves or leaflets, as clover. See Illust. of Shamrock.

Trifoliolate
(Tri*fo"li*o*late) a. [Pref. tri- + foliolate.] (Bot.) Having three leaflets.

Trifolium
(||Tri*fo"li*um) n. [L., clover.] (Bot.) A genus of leguminous herbs with densely spiked flowers and usually trifoliate leaves; trefoil. There are many species, all of which are called clover. See Clover.

Trifoly
(Tri"fo*ly) n. [L. trifolium. See Trifoliate, Trefoil.] (Bot.) Sweet trefoil. [Obs.]

She was crowned with a chaplet of trifoly.

B. Jonson.

Triforium
(||Tri*fo"ri*um) n. [LL., fr. L. tri- (see Tri-) + foris, pl. fores, a door.] (Arch.) The gallery or open space between the vaulting and the roof of the aisles of a church, often forming a rich arcade in the interior of the church, above the nave arches and below the clearstory windows.

Triform
(Tri"form) a. [L. triformis; tri- (see Tri-) + forma form.] Having a triple form or character. "This triform antagonism." I. Taylor.

Goddess Triform, I own thy triple spell.

Lowell.