Pettifoggery

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pettifoggery \Pet"ti*fog`ger*y\, n.; pl. {pettifoggeries}.
     The practice or arts of a pettifogger; disreputable tricks;
     quibbles; chicanery.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Quirks of law, and pettifoggeries.       --Barrow.


     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pettifoggery
       n : a quarrel about petty points [syn: {bicker}, {bickering}, {spat},
            {tiff}, {squabble}, {fuss}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  41 Moby Thesaurus words for "pettifoggery":
     artifice, bickering, boggling, captiousness, caviling, chicane,
     chicanery, collusion, connivance, connivery, conspiracy, covin,
     dodgery, dodging, equivocation, evasion, fencing, foul play,
     hairsplitting, hedging, logic-chopping, machination, nit-picking,
     paltering, parrying, pettifogging, prevarication, pussyfooting,
     quibbling, sharp practice, shifting, shuffling, sidestepping,
     skulduggery, sleight, subterfuge, supercherie, tergiversation,
     trichoschistism, trickery, underhand dealing