What's the difference between trifle and trinket?

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.

Trinket


Definition:

  • (n.) A three-cornered sail formerly carried on a ship's foremast, probably on a lateen yard.
  • (v. t.) A knife; a cutting tool.
  • (v. t.) A small ornament, as a jewel, ring, or the like.
  • (v. t.) A thing of little value; a trifle; a toy.
  • (v. i.) To give trinkets; hence, to court favor; to intrigue.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The windows become viewing stations to stare out of – transfixed by every small jet that magically lifts from the ground carrying tonnes of travellers and trinkets.
  • (2) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elizabeth Banks parodies Donald Trump’s entrance at DNC “Some of you know me from The Hunger Games, in which I play Effie Trinket – a cruel, out-of-touch reality TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering long-winded speeches to a violent dystopia,” she said.
  • (3) This was, indeed, the case, but I maintained a soupçon of integrity by giving all my trinkets to my young nephew – even though I know he’s never going to play that Star Wars-themed Monopoly board game and I totally would.
  • (4) As for the supposed improvements in the Pacific deal, he said, “It’s the same tired old labor standards we had with George Bush, with a few trinkets added.” In a largely toothless side agreement, Nafta’s three signatories – the United States, Mexico and Canada – targeted child labor, minimum-wage violations and occupational safety problems.
  • (5) One convicted Kenyan poacher who used a spear to kill 70 elephants and cut off their tusks with an axe to sell for £80 a kilo, said he did it because it was “just business.” The demand is not local but comes from south-east Asia, where an increasingly affluent middle class buys ivory that has been carved into trinkets and ornaments , and millionaires quaff ground-down rhino horn in wine as a status symbol .
  • (6) Africa is rich in treasures, but now also filled with the coloniser’s waste and the only way the natives can earn a living is by selling us unnecessary trinkets and exporting them back to our shores.” You might think that people who wanted to go to a nightclub to drink and dance and cop off with each other would balk at the idea of spending the evening in an environment where inevitable systematic exploitation was being addressed, but apparently not.
  • (7) On Tuesday, prices ranged from $20 for a trinket to $60,000 for a five-tiered pagoda carved in ivory.
  • (8) Brimming with the embroidered thrones and lacquered vases of despots and dictators, these are objects over which wars were fought, trade routes opened up and empires built, next to exquisite trinkets that sent their makers blind.
  • (9) The house is the ultimate in moneyed hippydippydom – candles at every corner, trinkets on every shelf, elephants from India, giraffes from Africa, memorabilia from their travels.
  • (10) There are stalls selling clothing and trinkets but most are there to provide fuel for the dancing.
  • (11) Retail outlets also offered special placements and promotion: displays, posters, mentions in print ads, giveaways, trinkets and what were called end cap displays.
  • (12) The men work on nearby construction sites, while the women spend their days in the dank, artificially lit alleys, stripping wire for copper and selling trinkets from closet-sized stalls.
  • (13) The room is crammed with memorabilia – a programme from 1967 when QPR won the League Cup and a picture of footballing hero Rodney Marsh, any number of Beatles trinkets (mainly from the Revolver album), a ferocious metal bell presented by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, a Margaret Thatcher nut cracker ("It strikes me as pretty tasteless.
  • (14) Turns out, the shiny trinket can actually control dragons, so it's probably best to keep it out of the hands of evil wizards.
  • (15) Bosses of the 'Ndrangheta, the global crime syndicate with roots in the Calabrian "toe" of Italy , have historically stressed their religiosity, decorating their hideout bunkers with Catholic trinkets and even held annual meetings under the cover of a Christian sanctuary in the Aspromonte mountains.
  • (16) One street vendor who had been hawking Brazil shirts and trinkets already had a financial reason to be unhappy about the result: "I'm stuck with 8,000 reais [£2,400] of merchandising."
  • (17) As well as working with Izzard, one of his heroes, Wood relished the chance to create the look of his character – dreadlocks, trinkets, tribal face paint, serious suntan.
  • (18) And there’s all manner of trinkets and gifts riffing on it, from “Keep calm and drink wine” tea towels to glasses etched with “Goodnight kids… Hello wine!” and fridge magnets declaring: “Wine is my reward for being this fabulous.” It’s all a bit of a giggle, isn’t it?
  • (19) Open Wed-Mon 11am-7.30pm Aquvii Aquvii Photograph: Misha Janette A perfect example of a zakka-ya , a popular style of shop that sells a discerningly curated selection of trinkets, and odds and ends.
  • (20) Most countries’ exhibitions feel like a cross between a Waitrose advert and a travel agents’ trade fair – immersive multimedia dioramas of bountiful produce and spectacular scenery, dotted with stalls selling craft trinkets and samples of cheese.