Petty
['petɪ] or ['pɛti]
Definition
(adj.) contemptibly narrow in outlook; 'petty little comments'; 'disgusted with their small-minded pettiness' .
Checked by Evita--From WordNet
Definition
(superl.) Little; trifling; inconsiderable; also, inferior; subordinate; as, a petty fault; a petty prince.
Checker: Sherman
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Little, small, trifling, trivial, frivolous, inconsiderable, unimportant, insignificant, slight, of small moment, of small account.[2]. Inferior, of a low grade.
Checker: Olga
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Small, mean, paltry, ignoble, trifling, narrow, trivial, contemptible
ANT:Large, large-hearted, noble, generous, chivalrous, magnificent, liberal, broad
Editor: Philip
Definition
adj. small: of less importance: lower in rank power &c.: inconsiderable insignificant: contemptible.—adv. Pett′ily.—n. Pett′iness.—Petty cash small sums of money received or paid; Petty larceny (see Larceny); Petty officer a naval officer with rank corresponding to a non-commissioned officer in the army.
Editor: Xenia
Examples
- To the party worker the petty and the honest issue are equally disturbing. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Such conditions are often minutely represented in our petty lifetimes. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- It would be very petty of us who are well and can bear things, to think much of small offences from those who carry a weight of trial. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- At that point he had transcended the mind of the petty reformer completely. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- She wants petty, immediate POWER, she wants the illusion that she is a great woman, that is all. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- But Akbar, like all men, great or petty, lived within the limitations of his period and its circles of ideas. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- But between ourselves, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a petty way as ever came before me. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Typed by Gwendolyn