pettifogging
Americanadjective
-
insignificant; petty.
pettifogging details.
-
dishonest or unethical in insignificant matters; meanly petty.
adjective
-
petty
pettifogging details
-
mean; quibbling
pettifogging lawyers
Etymology
Origin of pettifogging
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.
The virtue of this concept is that it divorces essential protections from pettifogging debates over the definition of “employee.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2022
But the vast majority of our elected representatives overruled the pettifogging legalisms of Kennedy and the others.
From Washington Times • Jan. 13, 2021
The word is so seldom used that Google Ngrams, which measures the frequency that words appear in books and journals, shows that "pettifogging" peaked in 1900, but has gradually disappeared.
From BBC • Jan. 22, 2020
By around the start of Wednesday’s proceedings, the pettifogging over Nadler’s use of “language that is not conducive to civil discourse” had extended from Republicans in the executive, to the judiciary, to the legislative.
From Slate • Jan. 22, 2020
I mean to make my mark here; no more small pettifogging ways for me.
From The Little Missis by Skinner, Charlotte
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.
