Word.ws English Dictionary

pettyfog

pettyfog is the alternative form 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

Forms of pettyfog

third-person singular presentpettyfogs
present participlepettyfogging
past participlepettyfogged
pastpettyfogged

Questions about pettyfog

What is pettyfog the alternative form of?
Pettyfog is the alternative form of pettifog.

Words near pettyfog in the dictionary

  1. petty-house
  2. petty-houses
  3. pettyauger
  4. pettyaugers
  5. pettychaps
  6. pettyfog
  7. pettyfogged
  8. pettyfogger
  9. pettyfoggers
  10. pettyfogging
  11. pettyfogs

Source and license

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