frivolous Hear it!

frivolous definition

frivo·lous (friv′ə ləs)

adjective

  1. of little value or importance; trifling; trivial
  2. not properly serious or sensible; silly and light-minded; giddy a frivolous remark, a frivolous youth
  3. having no basis in law because of the lack of sound legal arguments, facts, etc. or not brought to court in good faith

Etymology: ME < frivol (< OFr frivole < L frivolus, fragile, silly, akin to friare: see friable) + -ous

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alternate definitions:

law frivolous definition - legal

frivolous Synonyms

frivolous

modif.

  1. Trivial

    superficial, petty, trifling; see trivial.

  2. Silly

    idle, foolish, flighty, light-minded; see silly, stupid 1.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

frivolous Usage Examples

Modifying Another Word

  • rather: From this point on the rather frivolous debate of " Is it cool to watch this?

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • consider: The licensing authority must form a view as to whether a reasonable person would consider the observations frivolous or vexatious.

Modifies a noun

  • lawsuit: That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits ONLY in the United States.

Used with adjective complement

  • seem: If these explanations seem too frivolous for the reader, I can only think of one other alternative.
frivolous usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

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MLA Style

"frivolous." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/frivolous>

APA Style

frivolous. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/frivolous

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