Adjacent Words

piffling definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction" [syn: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty, picayune, trivial]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1864 of little worth or importance ; trivial

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. colloq. trivial; worthless.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Piffle Pif"fle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Piffled; p. pr. & vb. n. Piffling.] To be sequeamish or delicate; hence, to act or talk triflingly or ineffectively; to twaddle; piddle. [Dial. or Slang]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe something as piffling, you are critical of it because it is very small or unimportant. (INFORMAL) ...some piffling dispute regarding visiting rights. = trifling ADJ: usu ADJ n [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

Mickey Mouse, jerkwater, measly, niggling, one-horse, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, pimping, poky, punk, puny, small-beer, small-time, tinhorn, trifling, trivial, two-bit, two-by-four