pettifogger
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 159: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value RP is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡə/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 159: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value US is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpɛtɪˌfɑːɡɚ/, /ˈpɛtɪˌfɔːɡɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɒɡə(r)
Noun
pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)
- Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.
- 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 39:
- Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument.
- 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 39:
- An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
- Synonym: shyster
- 1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. 11:
- "An inn, or a tavern . . . these are places where greasy citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most unhappy victims.
- 1885, The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 6:
- . . .yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger, to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness. . . .
- 1926 June 28, "National Affairs: Blind Mans Huff," Time:
- "Donald Hughes, well known in Minneapolis as a conscienceless shyster, was placed in charge of the case. . . . Mr. Edgerton, a high class, reputable lawyer, was called in of counsel from another city to lend respectability to the crooked, unprincipled, blackmailing pettifogger, Hughes."
Related terms
Translations
Someone who quibbles
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An unscrupulous lawyer
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