pettifog
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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To pettifog is ‘to engage in legal chicanery’ or ‘to quibble over insignificant details,’” the dictionary advised.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 2, 2020
He had to pettifog or say it was a forgery.
From Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon by Frederick Van Voorhies Holman
Lanny, you, with all your intellect—when you know the oath as well as I—you pettifog like that!
From The Last Shot by Frederick Palmer
From the time that Charlton began to pettifog with his conscience, he began to lose peace of mind.
From The Mystery of Metropolisville by Edward Eggleston
The popular understanding of the word criticize is to find fault, to pettifog.
From Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned by Christopher Morley
But Fom was never known to lie; she only pettifogged.
From The Madigans by Orson Lowell
The advice given yesterday with an assurance that only a settled and undoubting conviction could possibly excuse, was to-day pettifogged away mainly on the ground of Charley's worldly prosperity.
From The Faith Doctor A Story of New York by Edward Eggleston
Fancy a creature that has pettifogged, as an underling too, all his life.’
From That Stick by Charlotte Mary Yonge
In every part of Italy,—in Malta, in Savoy, in Parma, in Lucca, in Genoa,—and finally even in Spain, he had pettifogged, bullied, threatened, until his opponents had given way.
From Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 2 by Andrew Dickson White
Truths once accepted as "self-evident," since become awkward of acceptance, were ever thus pettifogged out of the path, and fundamental principles have in this way prescriptively been tampered with.
From "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers" by Charles Francis Adams
The Economist described his viewpoint succinctly: “He paints stewards of fair play — regulators and boards — as pettifogging enemies of progress,” wrote its pseudonymous business columnist “Schumpeter.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2022
But the vast majority of our elected representatives overruled the pettifogging legalisms of Kennedy and the others.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 13, 2021
The word is so seldom used that Google Ngrams, which measures the frequency that words appear in books and journals, shows that "pettifogging" peaked in 1900, but has gradually disappeared.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2020
By around the start of Wednesday’s proceedings, the pettifogging over Nadler’s use of “language that is not conducive to civil discourse” had extended from Republicans in the executive, to the judiciary, to the legislative.
From Slate ● Jan. 22, 2020
CHICANE, the pettifogging subterfuge and delay of sharp law-practitioners, also any deliberate attempt to gain unfair advantage by petty tricks.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" by Various
