bagatelle

Meanings

Noun

• A trifle; an insubstantial thing.
• A short piece of literature or of instrumental music, typically light or playful in character.
• A game similar to billiards played on an oblong table with pockets or arches at one end only.
• Any of several smaller, wooden table top games developed from the original bagatelle in which the pockets are made of pins; also called pin bagatelle, hit-a-pin bagatelle, jaw ball.

Verb

• To meander or move around, in a manner similar to the ball in the game of bagatelle.
• To bagatellize; to regard as a bagatelle.

Origin

• Borrowed from French bagatelle, from Italian bagattella.