All 23 Uses of
trifle
in
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky
- "I want to attempt a thing like that and am frightened by these trifles," he thought, with an odd smile.†
Chpt 1.1trifles = things of small importance
- For this business one should be as little conspicuous as possible....Trifles, trifles are what matter!†
Chpt 1.1
- For this business one should be as little conspicuous as possible....Trifles, trifles are what matter!†
Chpt 1.1
- Why, it's just such trifles that always ruin everything....†
Chpt 1.1
- You come with such trifles, my good sir, it's scarcely worth anything.†
Chpt 1.1
- You could only perhaps ruin yourself, and, besides, Dounia would not allow it; and fill up my letter with trifles when my heart was so full of sorrow, I could not.†
Chpt 1.3
- As for getting the axe, that trifling business cost him no anxiety, for nothing could be easier.
Chpt 1.6 *trifling = minor (unimportant or easily done)
- But those were all trifles which he had not even begun to consider, and indeed he had no time.†
Chpt 1.6trifles = things of small importance
- He was thinking of the chief point, and put off trifling details, until he could believe in it all.†
Chpt 1.6
- One trifling circumstance upset his calculations, before he had even left the staircase.†
Chpt 1.6
- But a sort of blankness, even dreaminess, had begun by degrees to take possession of him; at moments he forgot himself, or rather, forgot what was of importance, and caught at trifles.†
Chpt 1.7trifles = things of small importance
- Some foolishness, some trifling carelessness, and I may betray myself!†
Chpt 2.1
- He doesn't jeer at things, not because he hasn't the wit, but as though he hadn't time to waste on such trifles.†
Chpt 3.2trifles = things of small importance
- You seem to be offended, sister, at my making only such a frivolous criticism on the letter, and to think that I speak of such trifling matters on purpose to annoy you.†
Chpt 3.3
- He was inquiring for people who had pawned things, and I have some pledges there, too—trifles—a ring my sister gave me as a keepsake when I left home, and my father's silver watch—they are only worth five or six roubles altogether...but I value them.†
Chpt 3.4trifles = things of small importance
- "That's just the point, that at the present moment," Raskolnikov tried his utmost to feign embarrassment, "I am not quite in funds...and even this trifling sum is beyond me...I only wanted, you see, for the present to declare that the things are mine, and that when I have money...."†
Chpt 3.5
- "Forgive my troubling you about such trifles," he went on, a little disconcerted, "the things are only worth five roubles, but I prize them particularly for the sake of those from whom they came to me, and I must confess that I was alarmed when I heard..."†
Chpt 3.5trifles = things of small importance
- Would you believe it, she talks of the silliest trifles and—man is a strange creature—it makes me angry.†
Chpt 4.1
- 'I wonder you trouble to come to me about such trifles, Marfa Petrovna.'†
Chpt 4.1
- Svidrigailov informed her at once that he was obliged by very important affairs to leave Petersburg for a time, and therefore brought her fifteen thousand roubles and begged her accept them as a present from him, as he had long been intending to make her this trifling present before their wedding.†
Chpt 6.6
- "It's nothing, nothing!" he cried to the mother and sister—"it's only a faint, a mere trifle!†
Chpt 2.7
- For every trifle he ran to Katerina Ivanovna, even hunting her out at the bazaar, at every instant called her "Pani."†
Chpt 5.2
- He was obviously in an exceedingly good humour and perhaps a trifle exhilarated.†
Chpt 6.8
Definitions:
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(1)
(trifle as in: a trifling matter) something of small importance; or a small quantity
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(2)
(trifle with as in: trifle with her affections) to treat somebody or something thoughtlessly or without respect
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(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Less commonly, a trifle can refer to a kind of dessert. In classic literature, trifling can be a synonym for small talk.