pettifogging
Americanadjective
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insignificant; petty.
pettifogging details.
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dishonest or unethical in insignificant matters; meanly petty.
adjective
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petty
pettifogging details
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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.
Experts were doubtful from the start of his pettifogging that he had reasonable grounds to bail out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 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
He’s the ultimate Gary Stu character: a billionaire beholden to no one and able to abuse every disingenuous and pettifogging remora latched headfirst on the nation and sucking upward.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 24, 2016
And to begin with, look what a pull Cromwell had over Pym—the one name full of a resonant imperialism, the other, mean, pettifogging, and unheroic to a degree.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) Juvenilia and Other Papers by Robert Louis Stevenson
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