Meaning of pettifoggery | Babel Free

Definitions

The actions of a pettifogger; a trivial quarrel.

Examples

“He was capable of using lawyerly rhetoric, at times, to the brink of pettifoggery.”

“Yet even Harlan was to prove capable of grievous pettifoggery on the racial issue.”

“[Frankfurter's reasoning in Beauharnais v. Illinois] struck Black and the other three Roosevelt appointees who joined his dissent as noxious pettifoggery[.]”

“The idea that a minor bureaucratic restructuring could have made any difference in the time of Trump reflected how immune bureaucratic pettifoggery is to reality.”

CEFR level