PETTIER

PETTY

petty, small-minded

(adjective) contemptibly narrow in outlook; “petty little comments”; “disgusted with their small-minded pettiness”

fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty, picayune, trivial

(adjective) (informal) small and of little importance; “a fiddling sum of money”; “a footling gesture”; “our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war”; “a little (or small) matter”; “a dispute over niggling details”; “limited to petty enterprises”; “piffling efforts”; “giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction”

lowly, lower-ranking, junior-grade, petty, secondary, subaltern

(adjective) inferior in rank or status; “the junior faculty”; “a lowly corporal”; “petty officialdom”; “a subordinate functionary”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Adjective

pettier

comparative form of petty

Anagrams

• Tiptree, tree pit

Source: Wiktionary


PETTY

Pet"ty, a. [Compar. Pettier; superl. Pettiest.] Etym: [OE. petit, F. petit; probably of Celtic origin, and akin to E. piece. Cf. Petit.]

Definition: Little; trifling; inconsiderable; also, inferior; subordinate; as, a petty fault; a petty prince. Denham. Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all. Milton. Petty averages. See under Average.

– Petty cash, money expended or received in small items or amounts.

– Petty officer, a subofficer in the navy, as a gunner, etc., corresponding to a noncommissionned officer in the army.

Note: For petty constable, petty jury, petty larceny, petty treason, See Petit.

Syn.

– Little; diminutive; inconsiderable; inferior; trifling; trivial; unimportant; frivolous.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

4 April 2025

GUILLOTINE

(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”


coffee icon

Coffee Trivia

Hawaii and California are the only two U.S. states that grow coffee plants commercially.

coffee icon