Petty
Contents
English
Adjective
Petty (comparative pettier or more Petty, superlative pettiest or most Petty)
- (obsolete except in set phrases) little, small, secondary in rank or importance
- Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all. (Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1671)
- petty officer, petty cash
- insignificant, trifling, or inconsiderable
- a petty fault
- narrow-minded, small-minded
Derived terms
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:insignificant
Adverbs for Petty
frivolously; meanly; insignificantly; ridiculously; contemptibly; miserably; absurdly; childishly; pitiably; curiously; singularly; particularly; extraordinarily; extremely; terribly.
Thesaurus
Mickey Mouse, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, authoritarian, base, beggarly, bickering, bigot, bigoted, borne, captious, casual, caviling, cheap, cheesy, choplogic, close, closed, constricted, contemptible, cramped, creedbound, crummy, cursory, deaf, deaf to reason, debased, deficient, degraded, depraved, depthless, despicable, dinky, dirty, disgusting, equivocatory, evasive, execrable, fanatical, few, flagrant, footling, foul, fulsome, grave, gross, grudging, hairsplitting, hedging, heinous, hidebound, illiberal, imperfect, impertinent, inadequate, incompetent, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inessential, inferior, insignificant, insufficient, insular, irrelevant, jerkwater, light, little, little-minded, logic-chopping, low, low-down, lumpen, maladroit, mangy, meager, mean, mean-minded, mean-spirited, measly, mediocre, mingy, miniature, minor, miserable, miserly, monstrous, narrow, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, nearsighted, nefarious, negligible, niggardly, niggling, nit-picking, no great shakes, not comparable, not in it, nugatory, obnoxious, odious, of no account, one-horse, out of it, paltering, paltry, parochial, parsimonious, peanut, peddling, pettifogging, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piffling, pimping, poky, poor, provincial, punk, puny, purblind, pussyfooting, quibbling, rank, reptilian, scabby, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shallow, shoddy, shoestring, short, shortsighted, shuffling, skin-deep, slight, small, small-beer, small-minded, small-time, squalid, stingy, straitlaced, stuffy, superficial, tight, tight-fisted, tinhorn, tiny, trichoschistic, trifling, trinal, trivial, two-bit, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, uncatholic, uncharitable, unchivalrous, unconsidered, ungenerous, unimportant, unliberal, unmentionable, unskillful, vile, wretched
Etymology
From Middle French petit, English since the late 14th century. The disparaging meaning develops during the 16th century.
Pronunciation
Translations
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See also
External links
- Petty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- Petty in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
