pettifog

[ pet-ee-fog, -fawg ]

See synonyms for: pettifog pettifogging pettifogger on Thesaurus.com

verb (used without object),pet·ti·fogged, pet·ti·fog·ging.

to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
to carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business.

to practice chicanery of any sort.

Origin of pettifog

First recorded in 1605–15; back formation from pettifogger “ambulance chaser,” equivalent to petty “inferior, secondary” + fogger “shyster,” from Middle Low German voger or Middle Dutch voeger “an arranger, a fixer”; akin to Old English gefōg “a joining, a joint”; see also petty

Other words from pettifog

pet·ti·fog·ger, noun
pet·ti·fog·ger·y, noun

Words that may be confused with pettifog

ambulance chaser, mouthpiece, pettifogger , shyster

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pettifog in a sentence

Poor Athenians who are accused of pettifoggery and sophistry!
The Ego and His Own | Max Stirner
It was with pettifoggery and intrigues that Greek liberty ended.
The Ego and His Own | Max Stirner
What then is pettifoggery but a way of utilizing something established without doing away with it?
The Ego and His Own | Max Stirner

British Dictionary definitions for pettifog

pettifog

/ (ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡ) /

verb-fogs, -fogging or -fogged

(intr) to be a pettifogger

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

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