pettyfogger
pettyfogger noun: someone who quibbles over trifles.
Noun
pettyfogger (plural pettyfoggers)
- Someone who quibbles over trifles.
- [page 200] This Fellow, I ſay, ſtiled himſelf a Lawyer, but was indeed a moſt vile Petty-fogger, without Senſe or Knowledge of any Kind; one of thoſe who may be termed Train-bearers to the Law; [...] [page 206] The Pettyfogger now likewiſe departed, and then Jones deſired the favour of Mrs...1749, Henry Fielding, “Jones Arrives at Gloucester, and Goes to the Bell; the Character of that House, and of a Petty-fogger, which He there Meets with”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling...
Forms of pettyfogger
| plural | pettyfoggers |
|---|---|
| alternative form | petty-fogger |
Questions about pettyfogger
- What does pettyfogger mean?
- Pettyfogger means someone who quibbles over trifles.
- What part of speech is pettyfogger?
- Pettyfogger is a noun.
- What is the plural of pettyfogger?
- The plural of pettyfogger is pettyfoggers.
Words near pettyfogger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pettyfogger (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: “pettyfogger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pettyfogger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.