What's the difference between squander and trifle?

Squander


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To scatter; to disperse.
  • (v. t.) To spend lavishly or profusely; to spend prodigally or wastefully; to use without economy or judgment; to dissipate; as, to squander an estate.
  • (v. i.) To spend lavishly; to be wasteful.
  • (v. i.) To wander at random; to scatter.
  • (n.) The act of squandering; waste.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Obviously that inning, and game four in general, was frustrating for the Oakland A's, as they squandered several opportunities to knock out the Tigers.
  • (2) If Heathrow were shrunk or closed, he says, the investment that has gone into the airport would be squandered.
  • (3) His would undoubtedly be squandered on Paul Smith outfits and holidays in Mykonos.
  • (4) The UK's weather seems set on squandering one of its last chances to make amends for the largely dismal summer by threatening wind and rain for the event-packed bank holiday weekend.
  • (5) Previous titles in the series track the unfolding of the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster: Syrian Catastrophe, War on Development, Squandering Humanity, and Alienation and Violence.
  • (6) A furious Aitor Karanka tore into his Middlesbrough players and aimed a swipe at Boro supporters after squandering the opportunity to go top of the Championship table at Blackburn.
  • (7) Part of me feels I squandered the chances she gave me.
  • (8) At his presidential announcement last week, former Texas governor Rick Perry called the withdrawal from Iraq “a national disgrace” and argued that the US had “won” the war in 2009 only to see the Obama administration squander its victory by leaving.
  • (9) Most consistent home wins record although has been known to squander leads late in games.
  • (10) Weaver said the New York tour, which he called a “cousin” of the Iowa road trip, was executed “brilliantly” by Clinton’s then-campaign team, which launched a successful bid for senate before her confidants squandered an early advantage in chasing the White House seven years later.
  • (11) It's as mad and dysfunctional as the idea that education is wasted on mothers, because they will squander it on overseeing the education of their children.
  • (12) After Branislav Ivanovic and Markovic had squandered decent chances, Kolarov doubled Serbia's lead with a 25-yard shot that arrowed into the top corner.
  • (13) Sterling squandered a glorious chance to restore Liverpool's lead in a second half where they remained dangerous on the break, but Everton maintained overall control.
  • (14) Adam Lallana and Sterling squandered glorious chances to put the game beyond QPR in the second half and their profligacy was punished when Fer vollied Joey Barton’s corner down the centre of Mignolet’s goal.
  • (15) Millions of British will pay a higher price – the needless squandering of their lives.
  • (16) Mumbaikars are excited, but also apprehensive: opportunities like this have been hijacked and squandered in the past.
  • (17) If asset managers and pension funds continue to ignore the threat, they face being accused of negligence - squandering billions of other people’s money on potentially disastrous investment decisions, because they were not taking the risk of climate change and what the cost of dealing with it could do to financial markets seriously enough.” Bruce Davis from Abundance Generation said: “We believe that renewable energy is an important new asset for investors to get returns which are importantly uncorrelated with the traditional financial system.
  • (18) Throughout this tournament, the striker with a bowl-cut straight out of Hull circa 1986 has lead the line superbly, made perceptive runs, found excellent scoring positions ... and squandered more opportunities than a boy who's been expelled from Eton, Harrow and every other fee-paying school in the land.
  • (19) Yet every day of waiting is a day wasted, with potential going untapped and opportunities squandered.
  • (20) He said England’s destiny had been in their control with opportunities squandered.

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.