petty Definition
petty (pet′ē)
adjective -·tier, -·ti·est
- relatively worthless or unimportant; trivial; insignificant
- small-scale; minor
- having or showing a tendency to make much of small matters
- small-minded; mean, narrow, ungenerous, etc.
- relatively low in rank; subordinate
Etymology: ME pety < OFr petit < *pit-, little < baby talk
petty Related Forms
pet′·tily adverb
pet′·ti·ness noun
petty Synonyms
petty
modif.
Trivial
small, insignificant, frivolous; see trivial, unimportant.Mean
small-minded, close-minded, narrow, narrow-minded, insular, parochial; see also mean 3.Inferior
puny, weak, undersized; see poor 2.
petty Usage Examples
Modifying Another Word
- rather: Annoyances There are only a few things that I really dislike, and some of them are rather petty.
- so: An unsigned Angel Investigations credit card to be specific, and some not so petty cash.
- too: Life's too short Meaning Response to a request to do something that seems too petty to waste valuable time on.
- very: Its size of a few thousand Planck lengths, makes it a very petty pea.
- just: Just petty smugness and people making clowns of themselves.
- not: They're not petty ones, I can tell you.
Adjective complement with noun phrase
sound: It might all sound a bit petty, after all does it really make that much difference and after all we all make mistakes.
Modifies a noun
- bourgeoisie: The old term for these is the " petty bourgeoisie " .
- offense: Petty offense or not they may look like players also tend.
- bourgeois: Much better to join forces with the petty bourgeois Scottish National Party in campaigning for an independent capitalist Scotland.
- squabble: We cannot allow petty squabbles over insignificant items of polity distract us from the goal of winning the world for Christ.
- thief: Others are taken by petty thieves or by drug abusers needing their next fix.
- jealousy: I'd never have made it to 1998 a football fan if my teams fortunes and petty jealousy governed whether I enjoyed the game.
Used with adjective complement
- seem: Life's too short Meaning Response to a request to do something that seems too petty to waste valuable time on.
- sound: I'm finding this hard to explain as it actually sounds so petty.
- say: Wonder how much quot said petty to him a book bad beats.
- look: We will make the action of the past few months look petty.
Browse dictionary entries near petty
- ‹ pettitoes
- ‹ pettish
- ‹ pettifogging
- ‹ pettifoggery
- ‹ pettifogger
- ‹ petticoat
- ‹ PETT scan
- ‹ Petrozavodsk
- ‹ petrous
- ‹ petrosal
- petty bourgeois ›
- petty cash ›
- petty jury ›
- petty larceny ›
- petty officer ›
- Petty, Sir William ›
- petulance ›
- petulant ›
- petunia ›
- Pevsner ›

