Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To talk or act feebly or futilely.
- n. Foolish or futile talk or ideas; nonsense.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To do something (or nothing) in a lazy, ineffective way; idle; dawdle; talk idly or nonsensically.
- To be squeamish.
- n. Something trifling or nonsensical; trifling talk; twaddle.
Wiktionary
- n. Nonsense, foolish talk.
- v. To act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner.
- v. To waste, to fritter away.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. Dial. or Slang To be sequeamish or delicate; hence, to act or talk triflingly or ineffectively; to twaddle; piddle.
- n. Dial. or Slang Act of piffling; trifling talk or action; piddling; twaddle.
WordNet 3.0
- v. speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
- v. act in a trivial or ineffective way
- n. trivial nonsense
Etymologies
- Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle and trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”). (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He uses the word piffle but he doesn't sheet it home to a person, he refers to the statement itself, which is piffle, after all.”
“In his speech Cameron will resurrect his claim - once described by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, as "piffle" - that society is "broken".”
“While we read these feeble arguments, which the newspapers would call piffle, how can we escape the conviction that evolution is in desperate need of argument?”
The Evolution of Man Scientifically Disproved In 50 Arguments
“In his speech Cameron will resurrect his claim – once described by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, as "piffle" – that society is "broken".”
The Guardian: David Cameron's 'big society' could be funded by savers
“Don't want to pay actual hard earned money for that kind of piffle!”
“AOL's spokesman An analyst sympathetic to AOL even used the word "piffle" to dismiss the grave concerns of the organizations, which come from all points on the political spectrum and represent millions and millions of supporters:”
“Evidence, consitutional safeguards, attorneys, that kind of piffle that Padilla trashed.”
“But this indulgence in "piffle" has led us away from the main entrance, and we must come back to the floor of the _salon_ in which our reception was being conducted.”
“The dear lady who delights in "piffle," and to whom "pifflage" is the very breath of life, had also her niche in our affairs.”
“Ursy, who pronounced the whole thing "piffle," and, as gentle chaff for”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘piffle’.
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FUN - Jeeves and Wooster - Wooster
"Woosterisms" as heard from the character " Wooster" in P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories.
be potty about, be tutted at, biff, big fella, bit of a cropper, blighter, blot, By gee!, By gosh!, By gum!, chilled steel, chokey and 115 more...
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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CCle
all those wonderful Britsy words that end with a double consonant followed by 'le'
doddle, bobble, dibble, whiffle, waffle, diddle, piddle, jiggle, straggle, boggle, fiddle, skeedaddle and 125 more...
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Origin unknown
bamboozle, ballyhoo, banter, bludgeon, chad, cocktail, culvert, curmugeon, dildo, dude, dweeb, dyke and 51 more...
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Waffle and such
waffle, raffle, piffle, trifle, rifle, sniffle, shuffle, duffel, ruffle, baffle, stifle
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Nonsense
Words that mean (more or less) 'nonsense'
moonshine, tommyrot, rigmarole, hogwash, piffle, hokum, horsefeathers, codswallop, folderol, blatherskite, humbug, gammon and 1 more...
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onomatopoeic
warble, quibble, quirk, drudgery, chortle, snicker, galumph, thwart, schlock, whimsy, garble, miffed and 25 more...
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Expressions of disbelief or disagreement
bollocks, come off it, rubbish, as if, bullshit, guff, i don't believe it, are you mad, tosh, nonsense, garbage, bunkum and 58 more...
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jeffreytwhitney's list
abecedarian, assonance, prolix, avuncular, baleful, borborygmus, accismus, atavism, catachresis, coruscant, callipygian, carbuncle and 117 more...
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Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
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words I love to use
kerfuffle, smarmy, sketchy, grim, wheedle, piffle, prattle, loggerheads, snarky, piddling, nix, caterwaul and 90 more...
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Pale Fire
Words gathered while reading Pale Fire.
larches, torquate, stillicide, vermiculate, preterist, theolatry, iridule, vulgarian, cloutish, lemniscate, torsion, trillium and 176 more...
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There's a word for that?
temerity, tacit, froward, faineant, caterwaul, menagerie, ennui, sine qua non, lissom, multifarious, laconic, katzenjammer and 240 more...
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quinbrowne's list
sometimes, the dictionary can't hold them all
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Daffobint's list
Tweets
Looking for tweets for piffle.
klmn613 "Perfect piffe".
P.G.Wodehouse, "My Man Jeeves" Nov 23, 2010
nell_nelson See Daisy Ashford's 'The Young Visiters' (sic) - and her wonderful phrase "piffle in the wind" Nov 8, 2009
madmouth If not frequently brandished by Wooster, it sure as hell ought to be Apr 13, 2009
johnmperry cf tosh Jul 21, 2008