frivolous
- 1Silly when you should be serious, or done for no good reason, just because you felt like it.
It felt wrong to make frivolous jokes at the funeral.
Buying a boat on a whim was a frivolous use of their savings.
Similarflippant, silly, facetious, flighty, capricious
Oppositeserious, solemn, sober, earnest
Note
- 2Not important and not worth paying attention to.
The meeting got stuck on frivolous details, like the color of the name tags.
Next to her illness, our worries about the wedding cake felt frivolous.
Similarinsignificant, minor, petty, negligible, inconsequential
Oppositeimportant, significant, serious, weighty
- 3Of a court case: sure to lose because no facts or laws support it, as the person bringing it should know.
The judge threw out the frivolous lawsuit and made the man pay the other side's costs.
Her lawyer warned her that the case was frivolous and would never win in court.
Similarbaseless, groundless, meritless, unfounded, vexatious
Oppositemeritorious, legitimate
Note
Practice
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Origin
It comes from a Latin word, frīvolus, that means 'silly' or 'worthless.'