pettifoggery
Americannoun
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the act of quibbling or bickering over something unimportant.
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the act of practicing trickery or deception of some kind, especially in the legal profession.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
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Surely, therefore, his lawyers will not engage in frivolous arguments, obfuscation, pettifoggery or dilatory tactics that would complicate uncovering the truth, right?
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2020
Now, the world’s greatest deliberative body has devolved into a palace of pettifoggery.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 22, 2020
Barr engaged in word-splitting pettifoggery that would make even Bill Clinton blush.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2019
She, surely, can be trusted to focus on the crowd-pleasing elements of the Salem crisis, rather than getting bogged down in the pettifoggery of historical accuracy.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2015
Do you take for philosophy this twaddle, this intolerable pettifoggery adorned with a few scholastic trimmings?
From What is Property? by Proudhon, P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph)
The magic mountain may have taken offense at these pettifoggeries, because more ill fortune fell on the expedition.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
