PETTIFOGGING

PETTIFOG

quibble, niggle, pettifog, bicker, squabble, brabble

(verb) argue over petty things; “Let’s not quibble over pennies”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Verb

pettifogging

present participle of pettifog

Noun

pettifogging (plural pettifoggings)

pettifoggery

Source: Wiktionary


Pet"ti*fog`ging, a.

Definition: Paltry; quibbling; mean.

Pet"ti*fog`ging, n.

Definition: Pettifoggery.

PETTIFOG

Pet"ti*fog, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Pettifogged; p. pr. & vb. n. Pettifogging.] Etym: [Petty + fog to pettifog.]

Definition: To do a petty business as a lawyer; also, to do law business in a petty or tricky way. "He takes no money, but pettifogs gratis." S. Butler.

Pet"ti*fog, v. t.

Definition: To advocate like a pettifogger; to argue trickily; as, to pettifog a claim. [Colloq.]

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

5 April 2025

SET

(noun) an unofficial association of people or groups; “the smart set goes there”; “they were an angry lot”


coffee icon

Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

coffee icon