piddling

Thân thiện

The company dismissed the piddling expense report as insignificant.

Definition

Adjective: 1. Trivial, insignificant: Describing something as very small, unimportant, or of little value or consequence. It often carries a dismissive or contemptuous tone, implying the thing is not worth serious attention.

Usage

The word "piddling" is informal and often used to express scorn, frustration, or dismissal toward something perceived as too minor to be significant. It is typically used attributively (before a noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb like "is" or "seems").

Examples

• Before a noun:
  • After years of work, they offered him a piddling raise.
  • Don't waste your time on such piddling details.
• After a linking verb:
  • The amount of support we received was absolutely piddling.
  • His excuses seem piddling compared to the magnitude of the problem.

Advanced Usage

• "to be piddling": to be insignificant or trivial.
  • The differences between the two proposals are piddling; let's focus on the major issues.
• Used to emphasize the inadequacy of an amount or effort.
  • They made a piddling attempt to fix the issue, but it wasn't nearly enough.

Variants and Related Words

• Piddle (verb, informal): To waste time or spend time in a trifling or ineffective way.
  • He spent the afternoon piddling around in the garage.
• Piddly (adjective, informal): A less common variant with the same meaning as "piddling."
  • I'm not going to argue over a piddly amount like that.

Synonyms

• Petty: Of little importance; trivial.
• Trivial: Of little value or importance.
• Negligible: So small or unimportant as to be not worth considering.
• Picayune (chiefly US): Petty; of little value or significance.
• Inconsequential: Not important or significant.

Antonyms

• Significant: Sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention.
• Substantial: Of considerable importance, size, or worth.
• Considerable: Notably large in size, amount, or extent.

Học thuật

Adjective

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