pettifogging
adjective /ˈpet.ɪˌfɒɡ.ɪŋ/
/ˈpet̬.ɪˌfɑː.ɡɪŋ/ old-fashioned disapprovingDefinition
› Pettifogging people give too much attention to small details that are not important in a way that shows a limited mind: pettifogging lawyersOf little or less importanceWanting everything to be right › Pettifogging rules or details are too small and not important enough to give attention to.Of little or less importance
(Definition of pettifogging adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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- Accurate and exact
- Approximate
- Balance and imbalance
- Being suitable or unsuitable
- Correcting and mending
- Faults and mistakes
- Inconvenience
- Justice and fairness
- Making mistakes
- Matching and co-ordinating
- Perfect and faultless
- Proving and disproving
- Reality and truth
- Suitable and acceptable
- True, real, false, and unreal
- Unfairness and favouring someone unfairly
- Unreal things and unreality
- Unspoilt
- Unsuitable and unacceptable
- Wrong
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Synonyms and related words:
- anal adjective (MENTAL STATE)
- anally retentive adjective
- choosy adjective
- dot the i's and cross the t's idiom
- faddy adjective
- fastidious adjective
- fuss verb (GIVE ATTENTION TO)
- fusspot noun
- fussy adjective (NOT EASILY SATISFIED)
- houseproud adjective
- martinet noun
- pedant noun
- pedantic adjective
- perfectionism noun
- perfectionist noun
- pernickety adjective
- picky adjective
- punctilious adjective
- purist noun
- stickler noun
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