fribble

present singular third person fribbles · participle present fribbling · participle past fribbled · past fribbled

1. To waste or fritter.
2. To behave in a frivolous way.

   We dried in the sun on a boulder as warm as a dying stove, and fribbled and monkeyed with each other, priming for later.

   1984, Guy Davenport, Apples and Pears

   1 more example

   The parish districts--and especially their lady visitors--declared that they were neglected; the rector never got a quiet cup of tea in his own house, nor even a quiet placid moment; for the sounds of young people laughing and, as Mrs. Fretchett called it, "fribbling" upstairs would float down to him working in his study, and then he would pish and pshaw, and move his chair impatiently.

   1897, Stanley John Weyman, “Archdeacon Hodden's Tribulation”, in For the Cause

3. To totter.

comparative more fribble · superlative most fribble

1. Of little or no importance, frivolous.

plural fribbles

1. A trifling action.
2. A trifler.
3. A frivolous, contemptible fellow; a fop.

   The plot of the piece was quite a new one. A young woman was repreſented with a great number of ſuitors, ſelecting a pert fribble of a peer, in place of the hero; […]

   1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Paper out of The Spectator”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume III, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 68

   Synonyms: dandyling, popinjay, barbermonger, beau, blade, blood, buck, carpet knight