pettifoggery

noun
/ˈpɛti.fɒɡ.ə.ɹi/UK

Etymology

From pettifogger + -ery.

Definitions

  1. The actions of a pettifogger

    The actions of a pettifogger; a trivial quarrel.

    • He was capable of using lawyerly rhetoric, at times, to the brink of pettifoggery.
    • Yet even Harlan was to prove capable of grievous pettifoggery on the racial issue.
    • [Frankfurter's reasoning in Beauharnais v. Illinois] struck Black and the other three Roosevelt appointees who joined his dissent as noxious pettifoggery[.]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for pettifoggery. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA