noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Nonsense, foolish talk. uncountable

   "The wafflier the piffle, the more sharply Mr Nicholson wields his skewer."

2. 2
   trivial nonsense wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To act or speak in a futile, ineffective, or nonsensical manner.
2. 2
   act in a trivial or ineffective way wordnet
3. 3
   To waste, to fritter away.
4. 4
   speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly wordnet
5. 5
   To be squeamish or delicate. dated

Synonyms

All synonyms

balderdashbalderdashfiddle-faddletwaddletwaddleabsurdity

Example

More examples

"The wafflier the piffle, the more sharply Mr Nicholson wields his skewer."

Etymology

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.