as in slight
old-fashioned
worrying too much about details that are minor or not important
pettifogging lawyers
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pettifogging
Adjective
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That slight warming trend is expected to continue Friday, when high temperatures reach the upper 30s, with lows in the upper teens.—
Matt Hubbard,
Baltimore Sun,
19 Jan. 2025 -
The snow started falling Sunday afternoon, with a slight mix of hail.—
Joseph Wilkinson,
New York Daily News,
19 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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But the smoke is still rising, and petty partisanship is a distraction and disservice at the moment, given all that’s been lost, and all the hard work of moving forward.—
Steve Lopez,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Jan. 2025
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In an era of steadily declining trust in media, the dry formalities of a legal template provide not only an imprimatur of institutional credibility, but also the freedom to go into extreme amounts of detail without seeming petty, tedious or self-indulgent.—
Eleanor Hawkins,
Axios,
9 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Those in-the-moment progressions can feel tiny and barely perceptible from one session to the next.—
Cindy Kuzma,
SELF,
16 Jan. 2025
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Despite their immense size, these gentle giants are filter feeders, primarily consuming plankton, small fish, and other tiny organisms by swimming with their mouths open to filter food from the water.—
Melissa Cristina Marquez,
Forbes,
16 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Moreover, the judges noted, forbidding the use of chemicals that carry a minute risk of cancer might prompt manufacturers to use compounds that are more toxic, albeit in noncancerous ways.—
Karen Kaplan,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Jan. 2025
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Despite the passage of time, the first coordinator of the state’s investigation into the Rhoden deaths can recall minute details of the crimes without notes.—
Patricia Gallagher Newberry,
The Enquirer,
12 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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And yet the movie’s insularity feels trifling and empty.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
17 Feb. 2024
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The cost to find these answers, even in the near term, is relatively trifling.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
30 Oct. 2023
Adjective
-
Any defection over the most trivial procedural or legislative matters could block the party's agenda.—
G. Elliott Morris,
ABC News,
7 Jan. 2025
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For investors, this means that meaningful financial updates from companies will be accompanied by mountains of trivial environmental data.—
Stone Washington,
National Review,
31 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
Lots of style, sure, but ultimately, and perhaps ironically, very little substance.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes,
18 Jan. 2025
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The ensuing reply-all showed little sympathy for the ninety-five-year-old school and its community.—
Jessica Winter,
The New Yorker,
18 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Then, the pandemic reduced the schedule to 60 games and Eddie got a piddling 37%.—
Star Tribune,
Star Tribune,
3 Dec. 2020
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Millions of additional claims are expected to stream in from around the country over the coming weeks, while hiring remains piddling.—
Patricia Cohen,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2020
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Thesaurus Entries Near pettifogging
Cite this Entry
“Pettifogging.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pettifogging. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
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