What's the difference between niggle and trifle?

Niggle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To trifle with; to deceive; to mock.
  • (v. t.) To trifle or play.
  • (v. t.) To act or walk mincingly.
  • (v. t.) To fret and snarl about trifles.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But I also feel a niggling strain of jealousy, even resentment, that it wasn't as easy for me the first time around as it is today for many people.
  • (2) But there was always a niggling suspicion that the fun couldn’t last – that Tempelhof’s unique status as a hugely valuable piece of land essentially given over to the average picnicking Berliner was too good to be true.
  • (3) Others face more niggling problems: in a recent post on the local Facebook group “Eliminate All Stray Dogs”, one resident claimed an unruly pack kept jumping on his car, destroying its windscreen wipers.
  • (4) I first saw the ad this weekend, and it's been niggling away at me ever since.
  • (5) Mauro Zárate has been ruled out for two weeks after injuring a hamstring, Enner Valencia will not return until October at the earliest after he suffered a serious knee injury last month and Andy Carroll’s comeback from the knee problem that has kept him out since February has been put back by a week after a niggle in training on Thursday.
  • (6) Ben Flower tested that theory to the limit with his attack on an initially niggling but ultimately defenceless Lance Hohaia which ensured that the 17th Super League Grand Final made a greater national and international impact than any of the previous 16.
  • (7) It is a troubling question that niggles away throughout our visit.
  • (8) Women who do have doubts or niggles are on the other side before they have a chance to think it through.
  • (9) This will unload the skeleton and give joints the chance to rest and recover, especially if one is prone to niggles or has a history of injuries – and you would probably therefore get more out of the long runs when you do undertake them."
  • (10) The niggling question Back to that niggling question: why intervene?
  • (11) Martínez said: “We gave all the players three penalties in training yesterday and if they scored all three then we said they could be back-up to Rom in the games, Ross did, so we said he could in the game.But he didn’t take a Panenka [in training] – he wasn’t allowed!”The Everton manager confirmed John Stones was omitted due to a “niggle” in his hamstring and is expected to be rested for a week to 10 days.
  • (12) Mayor Boris Johnson, whose default setting has been relentless and sometimes improbable cheerleading in the face of serious concerns and minor niggles, promised with typical restraint that as the flame "spreads through the city its radiance will dispel any last clouds of dankness and anxiety that may hover over some parts of the media".
  • (13) On the other hand, have niggles surfaced from continued use that weren't obvious before?
  • (14) I see all kinds of parents making huge efforts to ensure their children are happy, but niggling away in the back of their minds is the disturbing thought that they must prepare their children for lives which could be much harder than their own.
  • (15) Same-sex marriage ruling's ripple effect – historic celebrations of love Read more Almost immediately after the supreme court on Friday made same-sex marriage a right throughout the United States , conservative leaders around the south indicated they would resist the ruling with delay, bureaucratic niggling and circumvention of the verdict on religious grounds.
  • (16) But, as you brace yourself to elbow your way back through Heathrow terminal 3, you harbour niggling prelapsarian feelings about what you've just left behind.
  • (17) During saturation decompression there were 6 treated bends and 33 reported niggles.
  • (18) That would be a staggering achievement given she missed winter training, has had continuing achilles niggles and does not expect to be near her best for another 12 months.
  • (19) The niggling caveat, however, is the proliferation of known unknowns.
  • (20) Or, indeed, all the niggling setbacks suffered over the week which meant the 18-man match day squad included every outfield senior player available.

Trifle


Definition:

  • (n.) A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair.
  • (n.) A dish composed of sweetmeats, fruits, cake, wine, etc., with syllabub poured over it.
  • (n.) To act or talk without seriousness, gravity, weight, or dignity; to act or talk with levity; to indulge in light or trivial amusements.
  • (v. t.) To make of no importance; to treat as a trifle.
  • (v. t.) To spend in vanity; to fritter away; to waste; as, to trifle away money.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After a relatively trifling lead exposure they developed the signs of acute lead intoxication.
  • (2) It featured Adam Dalgliesh, the poet-policeman, and he seemed old-fashioned, too, intellectual and a trifle upper-class.
  • (3) So Inter sold him to Real Madrid at the end of the 1995-96 season for the trifling sum of £3.5million - less than they had paid for him.
  • (4) 1.15pm: Dave Espley is not a man to be trifled with: "I'd agree with Steven Gardner regarding the use of video technology for goalline reviews, but I'd go slightly further with regard to the retrospective punishment for cheating.
  • (5) Clementine and dark chocolate trifle (above) This recipe gives classic trifle a zingy twist with clementines and orange blossom; a great make-ahead dinner party dessert.
  • (6) Of course it is the hyperbolic silliness – the make-or-break trifle sponge, custard thefts, and prolonged ruminations over "The Crumb" – that makes The Great British Bake Off so lovable.
  • (7) English friends had explained to me, not without pride, the importance of grumbling to the national character, but I still want to stress to every Londoner I meet that — take it from a visiting Los Angeleno — the tube exists, and that counts as no trifling achievement.
  • (8) But it is a trifle dispiriting even so to hear the education secretary parroting the same lines as his predecessors – even more so for teachers, I guess.
  • (9) This March, the proportions of loans taken by finance and property slumped all the way to a trifling 74.7%, while non-financial firms took a whopping 25.3%.
  • (10) It wasn't a baked Alaska, a fruit tart, a cream-laden trifle or a steamed treacle sponge.
  • (11) If you wish to have only a trifling risk group of 10% of all pregnant women, you can predict right only about 50% of all infants with low birth weight.
  • (12) Bake Off validates the small quiet dramas of the trifling everyday.
  • (13) As in most mutinous them-and-us industrial confrontations it had been simmering for years and then boiled over for what seemed the most trifling of reasons.
  • (14) "And he is at a loss whether to pity a people who take such arrant trifles in good earnest or to envy that happiness which enables a community to discuss them."
  • (15) I try to answer these letters, but compared to the stories I'm hearing, my experience has been trifling - as more than one correspondent has pointed out.
  • (16) With the menswear shows in the capital now on their sixth season, such trifles have their place even in the mainstream world of an Arcadia-owned brand.
  • (17) Some jokey conspiracy theories did the rounds and one YouTube user criticised Hadfield's interpretation of the song as being overly literal (arguably correct, but a trifle harsh, considering).
  • (18) Clegg was the deputy prime minister and would not jeopardise his relationship with the Conservative party over such a trifle.
  • (19) And what would become of my mornings in my little corner and my late nights scanning the TV channels, watching my crime shows, not a trifling thing?
  • (20) But it’s no trifle — especially given the governor’s national ambitions.