trifle

Etymology

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

noun

1. An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.
2. Anything that is of little importance or worth.
   1. An insignificant amount of money.
3. A very small amount (of something).
   Take just a trifle of French mustard […] 1932, Graham Greene, Stamboul Strain, London: Heinemann, Part 4, p. 180
4. A particular kind of pewter.
5. (uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.

verb

1. (intransitive) To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.
   You must not trifle with her affections.
   But a Judge may not trifle with the Law because the society is defective. 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, Penguin, published 1958, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 171
2. (intransitive) To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.
3. (intransitive) To inconsequentially toy with something.
   She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon. 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, New York: Fawcett, published 1967, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 151
4. (transitive) To squander or waste.
   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. 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 62
   You who have known neither sorrow nor pleasure; who have trifled your life away! 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1985, page 189
5. (transitive, obsolete) To make a trifle of, to make trivial.