petty

Trade bible Variety called it a "lacerating portrait," while Deadline said the "damning" film had "thrashed" Musk as "petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel."

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

"It started as petty anti-social behaviour pre-Christmas and has escalated to significant shoplifting and theft. We've got to put an end to it," he says.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026

Peter the Great’s Westernizing reforms had only produced “enlightened slaves,” the worst of which were the chinovniki, petty bureaucrats: “uneducated, hungry, fit only for ‘service,’ familiar only with official forms.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Characters forced to make do either lash out, like raging overreactors on Lee Sung Jin’s petty, brutal “Beef,” or fall into holding patterns, like the unlucky in love leads of Issa Rae’s dramedy “Insecure.”

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

“You’re not exactly unbiased when it comes to questioning your parents,” he said, and he knew it was a petty, underhanded thing to say.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

“If I find him annoying, that means that maybe I’m going to come in a little bit pettier than usual,” says Martin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2024

Listen, I’m sure there will be a lot of sturm und drang about what the whistleblower disclosures mean for Elon Musk’s Twitter deal, but I want to focus on something dumber and pettier: Jack Dorsey.

From The Verge ● Aug. 23, 2022

But because Doncic is an NBA all-star, his true intent probably was pettier — an insinuation that the refs were on the Suns’ payroll.

From Washington Post ● May 10, 2022

It’s a juicy lineup of familiar characters who are greedier and pettier than those that usually populate historical epics.

From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2021

Hamilton by no means was blind to the pettier side of human nature, but he despised it; instead of truckling and manipulating, he would scatter it before him or grind it to pulp.

From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

Again and again, Bass went after Raman in the pettiest, most personal ways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

It’s elementary: Characters can do outlandish things, commit outrageous crimes, be inspired by the pettiest of motives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025

Furst insisted no topic is off the table, from the pettiest accusation to the most serious charge.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2023

This is just the pettiest host behavior in my recent memory — at least.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2018

It is the poorest of all wars, for it is the pettiest of all objects.

From One Of Them by Charles James Lever