mere trifle

mere trifle

1. An insignificant or unimportant thing or matter. A: "What do you make of the prediction that sales will take a steep drop next month?" B: "A mere trifle—if there is in fact a drop, it should have no bearing on our bottom line for the end-of-year profits." He dismissed the allegation as a mere trifle trying to distract from his campaign efforts.
2. A very small or trifling amount (of something). A: "No thank you, I couldn't eat another bite." B: "Oh, come now, it's just a tiny bit of chocolate—a mere trifle!" A: "I can't believe you would go out and buy a new car without consulting me!" B: "It only cost a mere trifle, so I didn't think you'd mind!"
See also: mere, trifle
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

mere trifle

Fig. a tiny bit; a small, unimportant matter; a small amount of money. But this isn't expensive! It costs a mere trifle!
See also: mere, trifle
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • be nothing to (one)
  • be/mean nothing to somebody
  • back street
  • Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
  • be not worth a fig
  • fig, not care/give/worth a
  • be not worth the paper it's printed on
  • cipher
  • be breaking a butterfly on a wheel
  • break a butterfly on a wheel
References in classic literature
"Gentlemen," resumed the orator, "I repeat that the distance between the earth and her satellite is a mere trifle, and undeserving of serious consideration.
The rain was a mere trifle, and Anne was most sincere in preferring a walk with Mr Elliot.
"I can't charge my memory, Sergeant," he said, "a mere trifle--a mere trifle."
They are brought in great numbers to the establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company, and sold for a mere trifle.
Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting.
So much depends upon it that my own life, if that is in danger, would be a mere trifle in comparison with the issues involved.
"A mere trifle. `Monsieur d'Artagnan, I send to the king of France the treaty in question, with a request that he will cast into the Bastile provisionally, and then send to me, all who have taken part in this expedition; and that is a prayer with which the king will certainly comply.'"
Phillips began to express her concern thereupon, he assured her with much earnest gravity that it was not of the least importance, that he considered the money as a mere trifle, and begged that she would not make herself uneasy.
Miss Pross's fidelity of belief in Solomon (deducting a mere trifle for this slight mistake) was quite a serious matter with Mr.
These shirts cost me nothing but just the mere trifle for the materials -- I furnished those myself, it would not have been right to make him do that -- and they sold like smoke to pilgrims at a dollar and a half apiece, which was the price of fifty cows or a blooded race horse in Arthurdom.
She exerted herself, and did try to make her comfortable, by considering all that had passed as a mere trifle, and quite unworthy of being dwelt on,
Though it must be admitted that the denudation of the Weald has been a mere trifle, in comparison with that which has removed masses of our palaeozoic strata, in parts ten thousand feet in thickness, as shown in Prof.
We have just been trying, by way of doing something, and amusing my mother, just within the last week, to get up a few scenes, a mere trifle. We have had such incessant rains almost since October began, that we have been nearly confined to the house for days together.
Jonson's poem, however, is a mere trifle, Tennyson's one of the great things of our literature.
But the soul that ascends to worship the great God is plain and true; has no rose-color, no fine friends, no chivalry, no adventures; does not want admiration; dwells in the hour that now is, in the earnest experience of the common day,--by reason of the present moment and the mere trifle having become porous to thought and bibulous of the sea of light.