How to Use trifle in a Sentence

trifle

1 of 2 noun
  • The money is a mere trifle to me.
  • There's no reason to argue over such trifles.
  • This trifle was not made of cream; it was made of a thick white sauce.
    — Dan Snierson, EW.com, 22 Nov. 2022
  • There’s no hard and fast rule for how this trifle has to be layered.
    — Melinda Salchert, Southern Living, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Place half of the Twinkie pieces in a 6-quart glass bowl or trifle dish.
    — Amy Parlapiano, SI.com, 19 Oct. 2017
  • Make sure the trifle sits for at least four hours before serving.
    — Heather Finn, Good Housekeeping, 12 Dec. 2018
  • Place half of the sponge cake in the bottom of a trifle dish or 2-quart glass bowl.
    — Taylor Murray, Country Living, 30 Oct. 2019
  • Well, maybe if Rachel baked her custard, jam and meat trifle dessert again.
    — Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 1 Jan. 2021
  • Treaties were trifles compared to armies and bullets.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Spread it on a shortcake, dip cookies in it, or layer it in a trifle.
    — Hollyanna McCollom, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 Feb. 2023
  • Here are our best guesses for what trifle will complete this feast of nonsense.
    — Vulture, 19 Oct. 2022
  • Brunch includes a yogurt trifle with house granola and fresh berries as a starter.
    — Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 6 May 2020
  • Opt for a caramel apple trifle or pumpkin brioche pudding for dessert.
    — Georgann Yara, azcentral, 15 Nov. 2019
  • All that goodness adds up to freshness and flavor that will take your trifles over the top.
    — By sunset, Sunset Magazine, 18 May 2023
  • And that is part of the draw of this unabashed trifle of celluloid goofiness.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2026
  • This zingy and creamy lemon trifle resembles lemon meringue pie but is so much easier to make.
    — Martha Stewart, 15 Mar. 2026
  • First, pour cranberries into a trifle bowl and fill it with water.
    — Helena Madden, Martha Stewart, 6 Jan. 2026
  • On the other hand, fingers crossed Rachel’s meaty trifle is left out of the lineup!
    — Hannah Chubb, PEOPLE.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Consider these purple, green and gold bread pudding, cake pops and trifle recipes here.
    — Ann Maloney, NOLA.com, 5 Feb. 2018
  • Elegant trifles that prove a baking fail doesn’t mean failure at all.
    — Elizabeth Fogarty, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Sep. 2025
  • This holiday season, let there be cookies and trifles and tarts.
    — Southern Living Editors, Southern Living, 13 Oct. 2023
  • The showstopper challenge is to make a free-standing trifle.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The five bakers must create an over-the-top version of a holiday trifle.
    — Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2020
  • This left Howard no choice but to use Deborah’s custard in his trifle.
    — Tejal Rao, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2022
  • Remember when Rachel ruined the British trifle by putting beef in it?
    — Abby Gardner, Glamour, 2 Nov. 2019
  • For a simple dessert, spread it between layers of pound cake for a shortcut caramel-apple trifle.
    — Elizabeth Fogarty, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Sep. 2025
  • For the briefest of moments, Harlan Crow looks a trifle sheepish.
    — Christopher Helman, Forbes, 19 Apr. 2023
  • This is mostly an odd trifle that, frankly, both of Streep and Soderbergh are better than.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 7 July 2021
  • Sliced in half, these would be a great GF substitute in icebox cakes, trifles, or tiramisu.
    — Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 28 July 2023
  • Arrange half the cake slices in bottom of trifle bowl; drizzle with 1⁄2 the liqueur mixture.
    — Woman's Day, 1 Feb. 2012

trifle

2 of 2 verb
  • But these are trifling compared to the headaches caused by street protests.
    — Max De Haldevang, Quartz, 1 Apr. 2020
  • But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about.
    — Ashlee Conour, Chicago Tribune, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The pair enjoy spreading the word about the cook who fed the wranglers and wasn’t one to be trifled with.
    — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 15 Feb. 2020
  • To be sure, that’s a petty, trifling point of view, but the sports world peddles in that stuff at every level.
    — Joseph Goodman | [email protected], al, 25 Sep. 2019
  • The rise may seem trifling, but staffers work long hours, and a caffeine budget is a necessity.
    — Lauren Green, The Washington Examiner, 7 Feb. 2026
  • The dessert, a Champagne and Granny Smith apple trifle, was not to be trifled with.
    — John Von Sothen, Bon Appetit, 19 Jan. 2017
  • This new economy is trifling, but Darlene is clever enough to figure out how to take advantage of it.
    — Tyler Coates, Esquire, 18 Sep. 2017
  • For the host who has an impressive spread of cakes, cookies, and trifles, this is a surprising addition.
    — Krissy Tiglias, Southern Living, 13 Nov. 2025
  • The 49ers trifled with them during the regular season, and in San Diego.
    — sandiegouniontribune.com, 16 Jan. 2018
  • Nevertheless, the cold is nothing to trifle with, forecasters warned.
    — CBS News, 3 Jan. 2018
  • Strawberries are delicious in cobblers, trifles, and crisps.
    — Nancy Lebrun, Verywell Health, 4 Aug. 2025
  • But that still left the less-than-trifling matter of the second tier’s title to settle, as the teams were locked together on 97 points with one game still to play.
    — Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 1 May 2026
  • Samsung made only trifling changes compared to the cameras on the Galaxy S10.
    — Dieter Bohn, The Verge, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Each of your unsuspecting knees and hips will be carrying around three pounds more than they're used to, and although that might not sound like a lot, these parts of your body are not to be trifled with.
    — Jay Willis, GQ, 1 Oct. 2017
  • But those who organized and attended last weekend’s March For Our Lives are not to be trifled with.
    — Teresa M. Pelham, courant.com, 31 Mar. 2018
  • But California’s relatively trifling ceiling can add up quickly for firms with thousands of users.
    — The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Bake off scraps of pie dough (either plain or with a sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar) until golden and crisp, then crumble into sundaes, parfaits, trifles, and more.
    — Katie Rosenhouse, Southern Living, 21 Dec. 2025
  • Of course, for the heavily black work force in and around Detroit that can’t retreat to a vacation home, such an inconvenience is trifling by comparison.
    — Jonathan Martin, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2020
  • The health factor is no trifling qualifier for a player who has missed time with shoulder and oblique injuries, in addition to that unfortunate incident with his pelvic floor.
    — Andrew Baggarly, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2026
  • But over the last week, such worries have come to feel almost trifling, as Mississippi’s state prisons have exploded with gang warfare, riots, disorder and killing.
    — Richard Fausset, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Jan. 2020
  • The losers in this exchange were subsequently ignored, told that temporary wage assistance or retraining programs would paper over these trifling problems.
    — David Dayen, The New Republic, 12 July 2018
  • The guild has insisted that the solidarity and resolve its members have shown in the agency fight sends a signal to the studios, too, that writers are newly energized and not to be trifled with.
    — Jonathan Handel, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Nov. 2019
  • Pictorial imagery catches us unawares because, as intellectuals, we are trained to analyze text and to treat drawings or photographs as trifling adjuncts.
    — Stephen Jay Gould, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
  • Luckily, on Wednesday Queen Elizabeth readily gave her consent in the form of a no-nonsense and not-to-be-trifled-with official letter.
    — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Throughout the book, matters of politics or patriotism are steamrolled by corporations, which (like the rocket) transcend nations and their trifling differences.
    — John Semley, WIRED, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Both fascinate and disturb, unwelcome reminders of our transient and sometimes trifling status on an unpredictable planet, shudders of mortality.
    — Patrick J. McDonnell, latimes.com, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Arsenal might be informed that things could have ended differently had Arteta spent a trifling $120 million on a striker in January.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 29 Mar. 2024
  • The total market for e-cigarettes remains trifling in comparison with sales of the normal sort, at about $200m a year, according to Euromonitor.
    — The Economist, 1 Aug. 2019
  • At the time, Summitt, whose flinty-eyed visage on the magazine’s cover left no doubt that the founder of the Lady Vols’ Tennessee basketball empire was no one to trifle with, was in her prime.
    — Erik Spanberg, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Mar. 2018
  • The aging Airy had devoted his observatory to stellar measurements that now produced trifling improvements to navigation.
    — Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'trifle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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