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Meaning of "pettifoggery" in the English dictionary

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PRONUNCIATION OF PETTIFOGGERY

pettifoggery  [ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡərɪ] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF PETTIFOGGERY

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Pettifoggery is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES PETTIFOGGERY MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Pettifog

Pettifog is an English back-formation of pettifogger, a quibbler of details. It is also a stock character in comedy, often a lawyer or professor. It can refer to: ▪ Mr. Pettifog, a minor character in The Bloodhound Gang ▪ Larsen E. Pettifogger, a character in The Wizard of Id modeled after Larsen E. Whipsnade in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man...

Definition of pettifoggery in the English dictionary

The definition of pettifoggery in the dictionary is the activity of conducting unimportant cases, as a lawyer of inferior status, esp one who is unscrupulous or resorts to trickery. Other definition of pettifoggery is the activity of quibbling or fussing over details.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH PETTIFOGGERY


allegory
ˈælɪɡərɪ
buggery
ˈbʌɡərɪ
Calgary
ˈkælɡərɪ
category
ˈkætɪɡərɪ
demagoguery
ˌdɛməˈɡɒɡərɪ
doggery
ˈdɒɡərɪ
froggery
ˈfrɒɡərɪ
Gregory
ˈɡrɛɡərɪ
groggery
ˈɡrɒɡərɪ
hoggery
ˈhɒɡərɪ
Hungary
ˈhʌŋɡərɪ
Nagari
ˈnɑːɡərɪ
pedagoguery
ˌpedəˈɡɒɡərɪ
piggery
ˈpɪɡərɪ
skulduggery
skʌlˈdʌɡərɪ
subcategory
ˈsʌbˌkætəɡərɪ
sugary
ˈʃʊɡərɪ
thuggery
ˈθʌɡərɪ
toggery
ˈtɒɡərɪ
vinegary
ˈvɪnɪɡərɪ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE PETTIFOGGERY

pettedness
petter
petti
pettichaps
petticoat
pettier
pettiest
pettifog
pettifogged
pettifogger
pettifogging
pettily
pettiness
petting
petting zoo
pettish
pettishly
pettishness
pettitoes
pettle

WORDS THAT END LIKE PETTIFOGGERY

carpetbaggery
eggery
faggery
figgery
gaggery
humbuggery
imagery
jaggery
niggery
priggery
raggery
ratbaggery
sculduggery
smuggery
snuggery
staggery
waggery
Whiggery
wiggery
windbaggery
zigzaggery

Synonyms and antonyms of pettifoggery in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «PETTIFOGGERY»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «pettifoggery» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of pettifoggery

Translation of «pettifoggery» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF PETTIFOGGERY

Find out the translation of pettifoggery to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of pettifoggery from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «pettifoggery» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

刀笔
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

pettifoggery
570 millions of speakers

English

pettifoggery
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

pettifoggery
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

pettifoggery
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

крючкотворстве
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

chicana
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

pettifoggery
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

chicane
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Pettifoggery
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Rabulisterei
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

pettifoggery
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

pettifoggery
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Pettifoggery
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

pettifoggery
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

pettifoggery
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

घाणेरडा
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

pettifoggery
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

pettifoggery
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

pettifoggery
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

крутійстві
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

pettifoggery
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

συλλογισμοί
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

zieligheid
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

pettifoggery
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

pettifoggery
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of pettifoggery

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «PETTIFOGGERY»

The term «pettifoggery» is used very little and occupies the 171.410 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Rarely used
20
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «pettifoggery» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of pettifoggery
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «pettifoggery».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «PETTIFOGGERY» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «pettifoggery» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «pettifoggery» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about pettifoggery

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «PETTIFOGGERY»

Discover the use of pettifoggery in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to pettifoggery and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Crabb's English Synonymes
I CHICANERY, Pettifoggery. Chicanery and pettifoggery are both words of obscure origin meaning the abuse of legal forms — trickery, sophistry, and subterfuge in conducting a case. Pettifoggery comes from pettifogger, a legal practitioner of ...
George Crabb A.M., 1917
2
Crabb's English Synonymes
CHICANERY, Pettifoggery. Chicanery and pettifoggery are both words of obscure origin meaning the abuse of legal forms — trickery, sophistry, and subterfuge in conducting a case. Pettifoggery comes from pettifogger, a legal practitioner of ...
George Crabb, 1917
3
Relevance in Argumentation
6. DIVERSION. AND. PETTIFOGGERY. The solution to the problem of analyzing fallacies of irrelevance comes in two parts. One is the problem of exposing the underlying structure of a relevant argument that has probative weight. This task has ...
Douglas Walton, 2003
4
Anthology of Russian Literature from the Earliest Period to ...
Like all the great comedies of Russia, The Pettifoggery deals with the negative sides of social life, and lays bare the corruption of officialdom. The plot of the play is as follows : Pettifog devises a plan by which he is to get hold of the property of  ...
‎1902
5
Print, Manuscript, & Performance: The Changing Relations of ...
In this version, the queen comes close to calling common law procedure absurd and superficial pettifoggery, at least in relation to a woman of the "quality" of Mary Queen of Scots. Of course it is possible that her remarks were elaborated upon ...
Arthur F. Marotti, Michael D. Bristol, 2000
6
I Always Look Up the Word Egregious
pettifoggery The result of such pettifoggery (barring Soviet scientists from professional meetings in the United States) can only be to keep away from America all significant international meetings, leaving Americans who are curious about ...
Nurnberg, 1981
7
Situation Ethics: The New Morality
MORALISM A second deadly distortion is moralism. Just as legalism absolutizes law and pietism individualizes piety, so moral- ism trivializes morality. It reduces ethics to pettifoggery or microethics, like the "microeconomics" John Galbraith ...
Joseph F. Fletcher, 1966
8
Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms
On the one hand, we here have legal pettifoggery. In legal pettifoggery, it is not objective points which are weighed against one another; in~ stead, concepts lead an entirely abstract fight. On the other hand, the conflict is sometimes delegated ...
Donald N. Levine, Georg Simmel, 2011
9
Biodiversity and Environment
25 PESTICIDE PETTIFOGGERY S.K. Agarwal It is often said, and rightly so that war is too important a business to be left to the generals. By the same analogy, there is absolutely nothing for us to dwell in fear of the situation where it can be ...
Shyam Kishor Agarwal, Swarnlata Tiwari, 1996
10
Roget's Thesaurus of Words for Writers: Over 2,300 Emotive, ...
pettifoggery (PET-ee-fog-er-ee). Petty dishonesty or trickery. “Let's put all this PETTIFOGGERY behind us,” said Mr. Powers, “and start dealing with each other in a more straightforward manner.” rogue (rohg). A scoundrel; a dishonest person ; ...
David Olsen, Michelle Bevilaqua, Justin Cord Hayes, 2014

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «PETTIFOGGERY»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term pettifoggery is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Birds of a Feather: Two classics of Indian ornithology get a new life
They distrusted the taxonomic pettifoggery of the life sciences lab and produced lucid, wry and very human accounts of the wild. «The Indian Express, Jul 15»
2
Response to the Critique of my Critique of Buhari's Inaugural Speech
I admit that fussing over the grammatical propriety of the phrase “in rain” is pettifoggery. So the writer was right to call my objection a “quibble,” ... «Daily Trust, Jul 15»
3
Flunking the smell test
The ruling establishment has unleashed, with unabated vigour and aggression, a torrent of pettifoggery in order to refute any suggestion of any ... «Chandigarh Tribune, Jul 15»
4
How Much Better Would CBS' 'Zoo' Be From the Animals' Perspective?
Kristen's anti-corporation blog she runs under a pseudonym is discovered by her editor due to Kristen's constant use of the word pettifoggery. «New York Observer, Jul 15»
5
Zoo, The New TV Show About Killer Animals, Is Fun, Mindless Fluff
(Side note: the boss recognized Jamie's prose because she's the only person ever to use the word “pettifoggery” in a news story.) Apparently ... «io9, Jul 15»
6
Grexit: There's a good reason the world's going nuts over Greece
No amount of semantics and pettifoggery can disguise that fact which has not changed since the start of the crisis. What cannot be paid back ... «Firstpost, Jun 15»
7
Zoo: When Animals Attack Your Summer TV Schedule
The giveaway: the frequency of the word "pettifoggery" in both Connolly's copy and the blog. "I had to look it up," admits the editor. I don't know ... «Reason, Jun 15»
8
Supremes find an acorn
... Roberts for the majority did attempt a face-saving gesture by characterizing the petitioners' pettifoggery as a strong plain-meaning argument. «Pleasanton Weekly, Jun 15»
9
Grexit: There's a reason the world is going bonkers over Greece
No amount of semantics and pettifoggery can disguise that fact which has not changed since the start of the crisis. What cannot be paid back ... «Firstpost, Jun 15»
10
In praise of the bat-logo police
This gift for pettifoggery was demonstrated again this week when M Vijay was fined a quarter of his match fee for violating Paragraph 7, ... «ESPNcricinfo.com, Jun 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Pettifoggery [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/pettifoggery>. May 2024 ».
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