pettifogging
pettifogging is the present participle and gerund of pettifog.
Meaning of pettifog
Verb
pettifog (third-person singular simple present pettifogs, present participle pettifogging, simple past and past participle pettifogged)
- To quibble over trivial matters; nitpick.
- Don't pettifog or we will soon grow weary.
- To do a petty business as a lawyer, or carry out law business in a petty or tricky way.
- He is a common barreter for his pleasure, that takes no money, but pettifogs gratis.c. 1840, “Samuel Butler”, in Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen
Noun
pettifogging (plural pettifoggings)
- pettifoggery
- […] lost in such a jungle of intrigues, pettifoggings, treacheries, diplomacies domestic and foreign […]1858–1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC
- It's lots of other pettifogging, degrading things. Things you have to endure, things you never have to think about until they happen to you.1967, Agatha Christie, Endless Night
Forms of pettifogging
| plural | pettifoggings |
|---|
Questions about pettifogging
- What does pettifogging mean?
- Pettifogging means pettifoggery.
- What is pettifogging the present participle and gerund of?
- Pettifogging is the present participle and gerund of pettifog.
- What part of speech is pettifogging?
- Pettifogging is a noun.
- What is the plural of pettifogging?
- The plural of pettifogging is pettifoggings.
Words near pettifogging in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pettifogging (page history and authors); pettifog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “pettifogging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pettifogging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.