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  1. bagatelle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A trifle; a thing of no importance.
  2. n. A game played on a table having at one end nine holes, into which balls are to be struck with a billiard-cue.
  3. n. Specifically, in music, a short and light piece, usually for the piano.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A trifle; an unsubstantial thing.
  2. n. A short piece of literature or of instrumental music, typically light or playful in character.
  3. n. A game similar to billiards played on an oblong table with pockets or arches at one end only.
  4. n. Any of several smaller, wooden table top games developed from the original bagatelle in which the pockets are made of pins; also called pin bagatelle, hit-a-pin bagatelle, jaw ball.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A trifle; a thing of no importance.
  2. n. A game played on an oblong board, having, at one end, cups or arches into or through which balls are to be driven by a rod held in the hand of the player.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. something of little value or significance
  2. n. a table game in which short cues are used to knock balls into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties are incurred if the pegs are knocked over
  3. n. a light piece of music for piano

Etymologies

  1. From French bagatelle, from Italian bagattella. (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Italian bagatella, diminutive of dialectal bagata, little property, possibly from Latin bāca, berry. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “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, Romain Duris and Louis Garrel.”

    GreenCine Daily: SFIFF. Preview.

  • “Contredanse (1827) seems to condense ballade and mazurka into a unit that Beethoven would likely have called a bagatelle, except the sweetness belongs to Chopin.”

    Audiophile Audition Headlines

  • “A bagatelle is a short piece of music, usually for piano, and with a light mellow character.”

    LearnHub Activities

  • “Consular 'bagatelle' was too confined in comparison with the spacious apartments in the Tuileries.”

    Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon

  • “Malmaison was a suitable country residence for Bonaparte as long as he remained content with his town apartments in the little Luxembourg; but that Consular 'bagatelle' was too confined in comparison with the spacious apartments in the Tuileries.”

    The Memoirs of Napoleon

  • “She remained in deep meditation, and began to search for the real obstacle that she had encountered, for it was impossible that it should enter the mind of any lady, that a gentleman could despise that bagatelle which is of such great price and so high value.”

    Droll Stories — Volume 1

  • “bagatelle', the player's demands to leave Old Trafford are guaranteed to overshadow the game at the Britannia Stadium.”

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph

  • “A delicious bagatelle, frothier and more imaginative than its predecessor.”

    Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder by Gyles Brandreth: Book summary

  • “At fifteen cents a dozen, the initial cost of his thousand dozen would be one hundred and fifty dollars, a mere bagatelle in face of the enormous profit.”

    THE ONE THOUSAND DOZEN

  • “The exposure of numerous MPs and Peers over the summer as nothing so much as looters of the public purse is actually no more than a mere bagatelle.”

    Archive 2009-08-30

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. trifle

hypernyms (10)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. triviality
  2. trivia
  1. small beer
  2. trifle
  1. table game
  2. musical composition
  1. composition
  2. piece
  1. piece of music
  2. opus

same context (16)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. fulmen
  2. flimsiness
  3. l'utilisateur
  1. toggery
  2. lieue
  3. constante
  1. neutre
  2. zin
  3. contraire
  1. fonction
  2. paltriness
  3. Bk
  1. heure
  2. amateurishness
  3. chaleur
  1. victoire

reverse dictionary (11)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. bagatel
  2. cockamaroo
  1. king-ball
  2. vive
  1. Mississippi
  2. bagatelle-board
  1. bagatelle-table
  2. Tivoli
  1. board
  2. cue
  1. pigeonhole

tags (7)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. game
  1. music
  1. literary technique
  1. fun to say
  1. band
  1. tulip
  1. ppwp_funtosay

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Lists

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Comments

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  • mollydot Also an Irish band:

    Bagatelle (band) Dec 14, 2007

  • trivet or a trifle? Sep 24, 2007

  • reesetee And here I always thought it was French bread. ;-> Sep 24, 2007

  • npydyuan A game played on a table having a semi-circular end at which are nine holes. The balls used are struck from the opposite end of the board with a cue. The name is sometimes applied to a modified form of billiards known also as semi-billiards. Sep 24, 2007

  • midnightisclose Every story, new or ancient,
    Bagatelle or work of art:
    All are tales of human failing;
    All are tales of love at heart Jan 10, 2007

  • seanahan If only some rain would fall
    On the houses and the boulevards
    And the sidewalk bagatelles
    It's like a dream Dec 1, 2006

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‘bagatelle’ has been looked up 2719 times, loved by 4 people, added to 47 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.