Meaning

3 senses

  1. To act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner.

    quatschen, plappern, quasseln

    нести́ чушьnestí čušʹ, болта́ть вздорboltátʹ vzdor

    act in a trivial or ineffective way

  2. To waste, to fritter away.

  3. (dated)To be squeamish or delicate.

Examples

1 sentences

  1. Balderdash and piffle!

    ruЧепуха на постном масле! — Ooneykcall

    deQuatsch mit Soße! — Pfirsichbaeumchen

    sundown · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
to act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner:

Origin

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

piffles, piffling, piffled, piffled
Base formpiffle · to piffle
3rd person singularpiffles
Present participlepiffling
Past simplepiffled
Past participlepiffled

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theypiffle
he, she, itpiffles

Past simpleLesson

all personspiffled

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave piffled
he, she, ithas piffled

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill piffle

Synonyms

14 synonyms
act or speak in a futile manner:trifleC2twaddle
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words
Derivedpiffler

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
piercingpietpietyB1pigA1pigeonC1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

piffle — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto