Crossword clues for pettifog
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pettifog \Pet"ti*fog\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Pettifogged; p. pr.
& vb. n. Pettifogging.] [Petty + fog to pettifog.]
To do a petty business as a lawyer; also, to do law business
in a petty or tricky way. ``He takes no money, but pettifogs
gratis.''
--S. Butler.
Pettifog \Pet"ti*fog\, v. t. To advocate like a pettifogger; to argue trickily; as, to pettifog a claim. [Colloq.]
Wiktionary
vb. 1 To quibble over trivial matters; nitpick 2 To do a petty business as a lawyer, or carry out law business in a petty or tricky way.
WordNet
v. argue over petty things; "Let's not quibble over pennies" [syn: quibble, niggle, bicker, squabble, brabble]
[also: pettifogging, pettifogged]
Wikipedia
Pettifog is an English back-formation of pettifogger, a quibbler of details. It is also a stock character in comedy, often a lawyer or professor. It can refer to:
- Mr. Pettifog, a minor character in The Bloodhound Gang (TV series)
- Larsen E. Pettifogger, a character in The Wizard of Id modeled after Larsen E. Whipsnade in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
Usage examples of "pettifog".
He was notorious as a creature of pettifogging detail who loved the quibbles of the lawcourts and the squabbles of the church.
Minor's men hadn't made it to the battle of Bladensburg at all—because Minor had allowed an officious junior clerk at the armory to delay him endlessly with pettifogging accounting procedures before he'd release the arms and munitions the regiment needed.
Eventually he had persuaded them to let him take enough, and was disgusted that they had made him lose his temper with their pettifogging.
It was hard, he thought, to be within sight of safety and almost of home, and to be baulked by the want of a few wretched shillings and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness of paid officials.