footling

American

[foot-ling] / ˈfʊt lɪŋ /

adjective

Informal.

foolish; silly.

ridiculous, footling remarks.
trifling or useless.

footling British

/ ˈfuːtlɪŋ /

adjective

informal silly, trivial, or petty

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of footling

First recorded in 1895–1900; footle + -ing ²

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

About two hours later, it was recognised Arthur was "an unanticipated footling breech", the Record of Inquest states.

From BBC • Mar. 14, 2023

That left Jonathan with lifelong feelings of guilt, which led him on several occasions to announce that he was abandoning what he once called “this footling flibbertigibbet world of theater.”

From Seattle Times • Nov. 27, 2019

This is in the grand scheme of things a footling detail, and there are many thousands more lines, and two more realms, to get through.

From The Guardian • Jul. 22, 2013

Still, he was expected to risk body and bone in a footling contest.

From The Guardian • Nov. 23, 2010

The one really footling, futile, fool thing to do, was what he was doing now—lamenting his old way of life and making no effort to recapture it!

From The Real Adventure by Crosby, Raymond Moreau

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023