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.
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
On the first day of the Trump impeachment trial, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts uttered the word "pettifogging" to illustrate a point.
From BBC • Jan. 22, 2020
Are you a pettifogging pedant who thinks that the widespread use of the word “decimate” to mean “annihilate”, or “gay” to mean “homosexual”, is a sign of the barbarism and illiteracy of today’s youth?
From The Guardian • Oct. 7, 2017
A snap judgment was to be taken by these pettifogging diplomats.
From The Evidence in the Case A Discussion of the Moral Responsibility for the War of 1914, as Disclosed by the Diplomatic Records of England, Germany, Russia by Beck, James M. (James Montgomery)
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.
