Chiefly Sc. Obs. Forms: 5 frewall, -ill, 5–6 -ell, -oll, 5–6 frivole, 7 -oll, fryvol(l)e, 6 frevol(l, fruell, 7 frival(l. [a. F. frivole, ad. L. frīvol-us: see FRIVOLOUS.]
A. adj.
1. Fickle, unreliable.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, II. 144. Frewill [v.r. freuoll] fortoun thus broucht him in the snar. Ibid., V. 646. The obserwance Quhilk langis luff, and all his frewill [v.r. freuoll] chance.
2. Frivolous, of little account, paltry, trumpery, flimsy, absurd. (In quot. 1894 merely a nonce-use.)
1492. Acta Dom. Conc. (1839), 246/1. Nain vther frewell exceptioune.
1497. Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., B iij. Whiche all ben but fryvole excuses.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., II. xxiii. My friwoll actioun.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xlii. 883. Thair friuole foches to repeit.
1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Plays, 1873, I. 134.
| I did (to shift him with some contentment) | |
| Make such a frivall promise. |
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Stat. Robt. II., 49. The saidis frivoll and dilatour exceptions being omitted.
[1894. The Saturday Review, LXXVII. 9 June, 615/2. Who does not know it well, and recognize it with a groan, that wearyful transition from the novel simply frivol to the novel frivol-philosophic?]
B. sb. A frivolous thing, a trifle.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xxvii. 97. Wiþouten þe all þinges are friuoles.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn and Eglantine, xii. 44. Put out of your ymaginacyon suche casuall fryuolles.
