pettifogging

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The virtue of this concept is that it divorces essential protections from pettifogging debates over the definition of “employee.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2022

But the vast majority of our elected representatives overruled the pettifogging legalisms of Kennedy and the others.

From Washington Times • Jan. 13, 2021

On the first day of the Trump impeachment trial, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts uttered the word "pettifogging" to illustrate a point.

From BBC • Jan. 22, 2020

The result is that workers, job-seekers and public services of every kind are subject to a pettifogging, stifling regime of assessment and monitoring, designed to identify the winners and punish the losers.

From The Guardian • Apr. 15, 2016

Her cunning and shamelessness were largely commented upon at the time; but it was reserved for Mrs. Winslow to inform the world, through my operatives, that George Washington ever descended to this grade of pettifogging.

From The Spiritualists and the Detectives by Pinkerton, Allan