pettifogger
Example Sentences
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For nearly three years now, I’ve been fascinated by the performance art of this blustering pettifogger.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2023
“The noun pettifogger has two main senses: ‘A lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable; shyster’ and ‘one given to quibbling over trifles.’
From Washington Times ● Feb. 2, 2020
The verb was actually formed from the noun "pettifogger", which was used in the 16th Century to describe those who would argue over minor details in a fee.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2020
The learned editor apparently has a greater future as a pettifogger than as an attorney.
From Time Magazine Archive
In returning to my boarding-house I was met by the blackleg pettifogger, who treated me with great coldness.
From Secret Band of Brothers A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States. by Green, Jonathan Harrington
This would still the voices of those pettifoggers who will protest that Oswald was not actually proved guilty in a court of law.
From Time Magazine Archive
Quoting from Thomas Jefferson's diary reference to "soliciting pettifoggers," Joe Stamper of Antlers, Okla., urged his fellow lawyers not to "equate legal services with soap and breakfast foods."
From Time Magazine Archive
He had been trained in the school of the French Revolution—which was not carried out by unimaginative pettifoggers.
From Post-Prandial Philosophy by Allen, Grant
"That a son of mine should lack the spirit to turn on these pettifoggers!"
From Shrewsbury A Romance by Weyman, Stanley J.
Petty courts were instituted to take cognizance of petty offences, pettifoggers began to abound, and the community was soon set together by the ears.
From Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete by Irving, Washington
Vocabulary lists containing pettifogger
O'Reilly's Lexicon of Epithets
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True Grit
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"Old World Landowners" by Nikolai Gogol
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