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A TRIFLE
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
To a small degree; somewhat
Example:
a trifle smaller
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Context examples:
“My will? Yes, certainly, I know that,” said the doctor, a trifle sharply.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I warrant that there are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his work and a trifle dim in the eye.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Your admiral may find the new guns rather larger than he expects, and the cruisers perhaps a trifle faster.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
At first, amid the applause of the gods, he betrayed a trifle of his old self-consciousness and awkwardness.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
They really go on Monday; and I was within a trifle of being persuaded to stay at Lessingby till that very day!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I wish, Jane, I were a trifle better adapted to match with her externally.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And nine years, Catherine knew, was a trifle of time, compared with what generally elapsed after the death of an injured wife, before her room was put to rights.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
This old ape-man—he was their chief—was a sort of red Challenger, with every one of our friend's beauty points, only just a trifle more so.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I see that more than a mere dutiful morning visit to your aunt was in question; and woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference in such a trifle as this.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
But, to be sure, Lucy would not give ear to such kind of talking; so she told him directly (with a great deal about sweet and love, you know, and all that—Oh, la! one can't repeat such kind of things you know)—she told him directly, she had not the least mind in the world to be off, for she could live with him upon a trifle, and how little so ever he might have, she should be very glad to have it all, you know, or something of the kind.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
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