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Petty   /pˈɛti/   Listen
Petty

adjective
(compar. pettier; superl. pettiest)
1.
Inferior in rank or status.  Synonyms: junior-grade, lower-ranking, lowly, secondary, subaltern.  "A lowly corporal" , "Petty officialdom" , "A subordinate functionary"
2.
(informal) small and of little importance.  Synonyms: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, picayune, piddling, piffling, trivial.  "A footling gesture" , "Our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war" , "A little (or small) matter" , "A dispute over niggling details" , "Limited to petty enterprises" , "Piffling efforts" , "Giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"
3.
Contemptibly narrow in outlook.  Synonym: small-minded.  "Disgusted with their small-minded pettiness"
noun
1.
Larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale).  Synonyms: petit larceny, petty larceny.



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"Petty" Quotes from Famous Books



... One year later, Hengest and AEsc fought once more with the Welsh at Crayford, "and offslew 4,000 men; and the Britons then forsook Kent-land, and fled with mickle awe to London-bury." In this account we may see a dim recollection of the settlement of the two petty Jutish kingdoms in Kent, with their respective capitals at Canterbury and Rochester, whose separate dioceses still point back to the two original principalities. It may be worth while to note, too, that the name AEsc means the ash-tree; and that this tree ...
— Early Britain - Anglo-Saxon Britain • Grant Allen

... an indiscretion, as he had the power in his hands to do you an injury. Most men have got some little bit of petty tyranny in their hearts. I have had none." To this Harry could only bow. "I let my two boys do as they pleased, only wishing that they should lead happy lives. I never made them listen to sermons, or even to lectures. Probably I was wrong. Had I tyrannized over them, they would ...
— Mr. Scarborough's Family • Anthony Trollope

... observed Noble, who in return observed her not at all, being but semi-conscious. Looked upon thoughtfully, it is a coincidence that we breathe; certainly it is a mighty coincidence that we speak to one another and comprehend; for these are true marvels. But what petty interlacings of human action so pique our sense of the theatrical that we call them coincidences and are astonished! That Julia should arrive during Noble's long process of buying a ticket to go to her was stranger than that she stopped to look at him, though ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington

... Loombo are the highest of these, and it is clearly the interest of the supreme pontiffs of those ecclesiastical capitals to encourage such, and to intimate to the Sikkim authorities, the claims those who perform them have for preferment. Dispensations for petty offences are granted to Lamas of low degree and monks, by those of higher station, but crimes against the church are invariably referred to Tibet, ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... in the generation of the quantities." This would seem to be sufficient to set at rest any conceivable controversy, establishing an equal claim to originality, conceding priority of discovery to Newton. Thus far all had been open and honorable. The petty complaint, that, while Leibnitz freely imparted his discoveries to Newton, the latter churlishly concealed his own, would deserve to be considered, if it were obligatory upon every man of genius to unfold immediately to the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various


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