Noun

(en noun)

A small, insignificant amount (of something); a vanishing scintilla; a measly crumb; a minute speck.

Any small dot, stroke, or diacritical mark, especially if part of a letter, or if a letter-like abbreviation; in particular, the dots over the Latin letters (i) and (j).

* 1590 , Bales, The Arte of Brachygraphie (quoted in Daid King's 2001 'The Ciphers of the Monks'):

The foure pricks or tittles' are these. The first is a full prick or period. The second is a comma or crooked ' tittle .

* 1965 , P. A. Marijnen, The Encyclopedia of the Bible :

The words "jot" and "tittle " in this passage refer to diacritic marks, that is, dashes, dots, or commas added to a letter to accentuate the pronunciation.

* 1987 , Andrea van Arkel-De Leeuw van Weenen, Möðruvallabók, AM 132 Fol: Index and concordance , page xii:

*:: (the page calls both "a superscript sign (hooklike)" and also a diacritical abbreviation of ") "tittles" )

* 2008 , Roy Blount, Alphabet juice: the energies, gists, and spirits of letters :

A tittle' is more or less the same thing (the dot over an i, for instance), except that it can be traced back to Medieval Latin for a little mark over or under a letter, such as an accent ague or a cedilla. I don't know whether an umlaut is one or two '''tittles'''. Maybe it's a jot and a ' tittle side by side.

Noun

An English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.

An insignificant amount.

* {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne

, title=Well Tackled! , chapter=17 citation , passage=Commander Birch was a trifle uneasy when he found there was more than a popple on the sea; it was, in fact, distinctly choppy. Strictly speaking, he ought to have been following up the picket–boat, but he was satisfied that the circumstances were sufficiently urgent for him to take risks.}}

Anything that is of little importance or worth.

* Shakespeare

Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ.

* Drayton

with such poor trifles playing

A particular kind of pewter.

(uncountable) Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.