Adjacent Words

Pettifog definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PET'TIFOG, v.i. [L. voco, like advocate.]
To do small business; as a lawyer. [Vulgar.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: argue over petty things; "Let's not quibble over pennies" [syn: quibble, niggle, pettifog, bicker, squabble, brabble]

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. (pettifogged, pettifogging) 1 practise legal deception or trickery. 2 quibble or wrangle about petty points. Etymology: back-form. f. PETTIFOGGER

Webster's 1913 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pettifog Pet"ti*fog, v. t. To advocate like a pettifogger; to argue trickily; as, to pettifog a claim. [Colloq.]

Moby Thesaurus

argue, argufy, bandy words, bicker, carp, catch at straws, cavil, choplogic, contend, contest, cross swords, cut and thrust, cut up, discept, dispute, fault-find, find fault, give and take, hassle, have it out, join issue, lock horns, logomachize, moot, nitpick, pick holes, pick to pieces, plead, polemicize, polemize, pull apart, pull to pieces, quibble, spar, take exception, take sides, tear apart, tear to pieces, thrash out, try conclusions, wrangle