bagatelle

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“
"It is a mere bagatelle, your excellency.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun An unimportant or insignificant thing; a trifle.
  2. noun A short, light piece of verse or music.
  3. noun A game played on an oblong table with a cue and balls.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • To enforce the decisions of a tribunal in such cases would require armies compared to which those of the present day are a mere bagatelle, and plunge the world into a sea of troubles compared to which those now existing are as nothing. —  Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, V2
  • So of course the market's dead cat bounce is a mere bagatelle, an island in the midst of troubled waters that is itself sinking into the Sargasso Sea of despond. —  Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com
  • So it fits the term of what a bagatelle is perfectly. —  Epinions Recent Content for Home
  • A mercurial and fractured look at the bond between two brothers, this nouvelle vague-inflected bagatelle is played by two of France's indelible young actors, —  GreenCine Daily
  • Although swimming a river of that width would have been to any of the four a mere bagatelle, they saw that it was not to be so easy an affair. —  The Young Voyageurs Boy Hunters in the North
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This word has been looked up 95 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Italian bagatella, diminutive of dialectal bagata, little property, possibly from Latin bāca, berry.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also bagatel, baggatelle (also bagatello), from French bagatelle = Spanish bagatela = Portuguese bagatella, from Italian bagattella, diminutive of dial. bagatta, bagata, a trifle, prob. from Middle Latin baga (Italian dial. baga, Old French bague), a bundle: see bag and baggage.
 

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/bægəˈtɛl/
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