Piffling (Adjective)

Meaning

(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".

Classification

All adjective clusters.

Usages

• Colloquialism

Examples

• The piffling amount of money he offered was hardly enough to cover the costs.
• The politician's piffling attempts to reform the system were met with widespread skepticism.
• The company's piffling profits were a far cry from the huge losses they had suffered the previous year.
• The piffling issue of who ate the last donut was hardly worth arguing about.
• The artist's piffling contribution to the exhibition was overshadowed by the more prominent works on display.

Synonyms

• Footling
• Piddling
• Niggling
• Trivial
• Lilliputian
• Picayune
• Little
• Fiddling
• Petty