piffling
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
piffling
adj 1: (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling
sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are
lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at
war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over
niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises";
"piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal
may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune
infraction" [syn: {fiddling}, {footling}, {lilliputian},
{little}, {niggling}, {piddling}, {piffling}, {petty},
{picayune}, {trivial}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Piffle \Pif"fle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Piffled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Piffling}.]
To be sequeamish or delicate; hence, to act or talk
triflingly or ineffectively; to talk nonsense or about
trivial matters; to twaddle; piddle. [Dial. or Slang]
Syn: chatter, palaver, prate, tittle-tattle, twaddle, clack,
maunder, prattle, gibber, tattle, blabber, gabble.
[Webster 1913 Suppl. + WordNet 1.5]
2. To act in a trivial or ineffective way.
[WordNet 1.5]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
22 Moby Thesaurus words for "piffling":
Mickey Mouse, jerkwater, measly, niggling, one-horse, peddling,
pettifogging, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, pimping, poky,
punk, puny, small-beer, small-time, tinhorn, trifling, trivial,
two-bit, two-by-four
grant@antiflux.org