Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 4 tifle, 5 tiffel, tyffle, 6 tyf(f)ell, 9 tiffle. [Dim. or freq. of TIFF v.1]
† 1. trans. To dress up, adorn, deck or trick out (in a trifling or time-wasting way). Obs.
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxii. 15. In the our of risyng, tifle [1382 tyff] thee not. Margin, That is, make thee no tariyng in araiyng, ether tiflyng of heeris, as wymmen doon.
2. intr. To busy oneself idly, ‘fiddle,’ trifle; to potter about. Now dial.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/2. Tyfflynge, or vnprofytabylle werkynge (S., A., P. tyffynge).
1530. Palsgr., 758/1. I tyfell with my fyngers, or busye my selfe longe aboute a thyng…, je tiffe. You have spente two houres to tyffell about this thyng.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tiffle, to be mightily busy about little or nothing.
Hence Tiffler, one who ‘tiffles’; in quot. app. one who dresses up; in mod. dial. ‘a trifler, idler.’
c. 1400. Plowman’s T., 195. But Antichrist they serven clene, Attyred all in tyrannye;… Tiffelers attyred in trecherye.
