What's the difference between serious and trifling?

Serious


Definition:

  • (a.) Grave in manner or disposition; earnest; thoughtful; solemn; not light, gay, or volatile.
  • (a.) Really intending what is said; being in earnest; not jesting or deceiving.
  • (a.) Important; weighty; not trifling; grave.
  • (a.) Hence, giving rise to apprehension; attended with danger; as, a serious injury.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This should not be a serious limitation to the application of the RIA in the detection of venous thrombosis.
  • (2) But the wounding charge in 2010 has become Brown's creation of a structural hole in the budget, more serious than the cyclical hit which the recession made in tax receipts, at least 4% of GDP.
  • (3) "There is a serious risk that a deal will be agreed between rich countries and tax havens that would leave poor countries out in the cold.
  • (4) Confidence is the major prerequisite for a doctor to be able to help his seriously ill patient.
  • (5) No report can be taken seriously if its authors weren’t even in Yemen to conduct investigations.” The UN team was not given permission to enter the country.
  • (6) The decline in the frequency of serious complications was primarily due to a decrease in the proportion of patients with open fractures treated with plate osteosynthesis from nearly 50% to 19%.
  • (7) Vancomycin is the antibiotic of choice for serious MRSA infections; PRPs and cephalosporins generally are not effective.
  • (8) An age- and education-matched group of women with no family history of FXS was asked to predict the seriousness of problems they might encounter were they to bear a child with a handicapping condition.
  • (9) The most serious complications following operative treatment are retained bile duct calculi (2.8%), wound infection and biliary fistulae.
  • (10) Guardian Australia reported last week that morale at the national laboratory had fallen dramatically, with one in three staff “seriously considering” leaving their jobs in the wake of the cuts.
  • (11) In case of biliary and pancreatic duct obstruction with pure pancreatic reflux, both oedema and inflammatory infiltrations were evident, whereas, in the presence of biliary reflux too, more serious histological features were detected.
  • (12) Autopsy revealed serious somatic diseases (stenosis of the ileum in two cases and brain tumor in one); their symptoms had been largely overlapped by those of anorexia nervosa.
  • (13) The above treatment is tolerated well and no serious side effects have been observed.
  • (14) This observation seriously challenges the hypothesis that SCE cancellation results as a consequence of persistence of the lesions induced by these agents.
  • (15) Earlier recognition of foul-smelling mucoid discharge on the IUD tail, or abnormal bleeding, or both, as a sign of early pelvic infection, followed by removal of the IUD and institution of appropriate antibiotic therapy, might prevent the more serious sequelae of pelvic inflammation.
  • (16) Left ventricular rupture is a serious complication of mitral valve replacement.
  • (17) Other serious complications were reservoir perforation during catheterisation in 3 and development of stones in the reservoir in 2 patients.
  • (18) For application to mammalian cells, however, two serious problems require resolution: (1), correction of TPP+ binding to intracellular constituents and (2), estimation of the considerable TPP+ accumulation in mitochondria.
  • (19) At least 1 episode of serious infection occurred in 34 of the 60 adult patients and 25 of the 30 children.
  • (20) These high Danish rates seem to reflect the true prevalence and incidence in the less serious types of progressive muscular dystrophy, probably because the Danish health system with free medical care and easy access to specialized hospital departments makes it possible to identify all cases of progressive muscular dystrophy.

Trifling


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Trifle
  • (a.) Being of small value or importance; trivial; paltry; as, a trifling debt; a trifling affair.

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.