petty

As a single, childless woman, I’ve also been on the receiving end of some petty remarks about how “easy” my life must be because I don’t have any “real” responsibilities.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026

Or was his quest for power rooted in sheer petty selfishness?

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026

The general reaction to the policy has been overwhelmingly positive, Xue said, aside from some remarks on social media that charging for a smashed teacup was a petty move.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

“These are barely grievances. They are petty complaints, and they have nothing to do with a Declaration of Independence from England and tyranny!”

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time...”

From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez

It doesn’t get any pettier and mean-girlie than “Did she sandblast her face or something? It’s very waxy.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2025

Listen, I’m sure there will be a lot of sturm und drang about what the whistleblower disclosures mean for Elon Musk’s Twitter deal, but I want to focus on something dumber and pettier: Jack Dorsey.

From The Verge ● Aug. 23, 2022

It’s a juicy lineup of familiar characters who are greedier and pettier than those that usually populate historical epics.

From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2021

Like most reality shows, “Housewives” thrives on drama — the pettier the better.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2020

In the present stage of the world's development it was to be expected that the pettier characteristics of human nature would predominate; and perhaps the intellectually exclusive would not have it otherwise.

From Ancestors A Novel by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

The show finds ways to expose the worst in its characters, their pettiest, most vengeful, greediest parts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

It’s elementary: Characters can do outlandish things, commit outrageous crimes, be inspired by the pettiest of motives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025

Furst insisted no topic is off the table, from the pettiest accusation to the most serious charge.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2023

And as days of isolation cascaded this spring and we navigated radically narrowed options, we became our most immature, our wisest, our pettiest, our most magnanimous—sometimes in the space of a heartbeat.

From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2020

It applies mainly to the pettiest offences, or to infractions of police regulations, and can be punished by fine or by imprisonment under a week, or by both fine and imprisonment, limited to a week.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various