pettifogulize

Verb

pettifogulize (third-person singular simple present pettifogulizes, present participle pettifogulizing, simple past and past participle pettifogulized)

1. (nonce-word, obsolete) To act as a pettifogger; to use contemptible tricks.
   • So far from seeking to "pettifogulise"—i.e., to find evasions for any purpose in a trickster's minute tortuosities of construction—exactly in the opposite direction, from mere excess of sincerity, most unwillingly I found, in almost everybody's words, an unintentional opening left for double...1853, Thomas De Quincey, “Introduction to the World of Strife”, in Autobiographic Sketches (De Quincey’s Works; I), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 59
   • On these high authorities I rest my case, and when I quote from these adjudications you will find to your dismay and horror that you are nothing but a pettifogulizing idiot.1882, Sylvan Drey, Woman's Rights: A Strictly Original Comedy in Three Acts, Baltimore, →OCLC, page 21