Word.ws English Dictionary

pettifoging

pettifoging 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)

  1. (intransitive) To quibble over trivial matters; nitpick.
    • Don't pettifog or we will soon grow weary.
  2. (intransitive) 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

Questions about pettifoging

What is pettifoging the present participle and gerund of?
Pettifoging is the present participle and gerund of pettifog.

Words near pettifoging in the dictionary

  1. pettifoggeries
  2. pettifoggers
  3. pettifoggery
  4. pettifogging
  5. pettifoggings
  6. pettifoging
  7. pettifogs
  8. pettifogulize
  9. pettifogulized
  10. pettifogulizes
  11. pettifogulizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pettifoging (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: “pettifoging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pettifoging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.