Crossword clues for pettifogger
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pettifogger \Pet"ti*fog`ger\, n. A lawyer who deals in petty cases; an attorney whose methods are mean and tricky; an inferior lawyer.
A pettifogger was lord chancellor.
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1560s, from petty; the second element possibly from obsolete Dutch focker, from Flemish focken "to cheat," or from cognate Middle English fugger, from Fugger the renowned family of merchants and financiers of 15c.-16c. Augsburg. In German, Flemish and Dutch, the name became a word for "monopolist, rich man, usurer."A 'petty Fugger' would mean one who on a small scale practices the dishonourable devices for gain popularly attributed to great financiers; it seems possible that the phrase 'petty fogger of the law,' applied in this sense to some notorious person, may have caught the popular fancy. [OED first edition, in a rare burst of pure speculation]However, OED also calls attention to pettifactor "legal agent who undertakes small cases" (1580s), which, though attested slightly later, might be the source of this. Related: Pettifoggery.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections. 2 An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
WordNet
Usage examples of "pettifogger".
There was a curt double tap of acknowledgement from the Windhoek station as the message ended, and Lothar let the earphones drop around his neck as he translated the groups: For Pettifogger Prepare Juno's private coach for inclusion in the Sunday night express mail-train to Cape Town Stop Juno arriving your end noon Sunday Ends Vingt Pettifogger was Abraham Abrahams.
The wife keeps herself busy then, devotes herself to handling specie, verdigrises her fingers, takes charge of the breeding of the tenants, the bringing up of the farmers, convokes lawyers, presides over notaries, harangues justices, visits pettifoggers, follows up lawsuits, writes out leases, dictates contracts, feels herself sovereign, sells, buys, regulates, promises and compromises, binds and cancels, cedes, concedes, and retrocedes, arranges, deranges, economises, wastes.
To despise and be despised, to cringe in order to rule, slaves and tyrants in turn, now kneeling before a master, now trampling the people under foot - such was the ambition of all of us, so long as we were men of birth or well educated men, whether common folks or fashionable folks, lawyers or financiers, pettifoggers or wearing swords.
They formed the Misery Loves Company party and as soon as enough vote-finagling thimbleriggers and power-hungry pettifoggers sniffed which way the barbecue-free wind was blowing, they had them a solid legislative representation in Washington.