Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that is insignificant.
- noun Obsolete An ant.
- adjective Not important; insignificant.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective vulgar Worthless or of no significance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
ant . - noun pejorative An
insignificant person. - noun pejorative A person who adheres strictly to a rule or policy despite current circumstances.
- noun pejorative A person seemingly incapable of focusing on anything but the trivial, especially in the sense of trivial or irrelevant criticism.
- adjective Insignificant or
unimportant .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pissant.
Examples
-
The little pissant is so mad at having his clock repeatedly cleaned that he has reverted to what mental midgets like hm always revert to.
-
The cop kept telling me that it was a matter of public safety ... somehow chubby middle aged white women are endangering public safety by photographing 100 year old public buildings in pissant towns like mine - kinda makes me proud to be taken as a threat at this point of my life. twitter • Some authors only plug their books or related products in their tweets, but some writers actually carry on a conversation or share interesting topics.
staycation 2009
-
The cop kept telling me that it was a matter of public safety ... somehow chubby middle aged white women are endangering public safety by photographing 100 year old public buildings in pissant towns like mine - kinda makes me proud to be taken as a threat at this point of my life. twitter • Some authors only plug their books or related products in their tweets, but some writers actually carry on a conversation or share interesting topics.
Archive 2009-05-01 2009
-
June 23rd, 2006 at 3: 49 pm jealousofjeff says: jason pissant is a redcoat – he would rather ’serve his president’ than defend the constitution. redcoat.
Think Progress » VIDEO: Springsteen Hits Coulter, Defends Right To Take A Stand On Political Issues 2006
-
That was the second time I had been called a pissant in jail.
Full Frontal Nudity Harry Hamlin 2010
-
Not only are the people more acceptable to you, you begin to show them that you really aren't a "pissant"!
-
The national attention they're getting is that they're rightwing vigilantes going AGAINST the state and federal gov't, which does NOT want to create new classes of FELONS for partisan grnadstanding, but their sneering at "pissant" thanks, Nuch thug 9:52, for showing who you people are once again executive powers of local government makes Lou Dobbs look like a leftie and an ACLU activist by comparison.
Trutanich crackdown has Craig X. Rubin facing a 5 to 12 year sentence 2009
-
Perhaps the editors who accept the "pissant" writers 'copy should be held accountable, no?
-
The next publication date could easily have scathing criticism: Jack Thompson's calls to the Penny Arcade offices could be straightly recreated, complete with "pissant" remarks.
toonzone News 2010
-
What kind of pissant country doesn't have a law on what women can do with their own bodies?
Progressive Bloggers 2009
muamor commented on the word pissant
1. an offensive term for somebody who pays too much attention to small details
2. an offensive term for somebody regarded as being of no importance, significance, or consequence
MSN Encarta.
March 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word pissant
Hm. I've never heard it used in the first definition's sense of the word. Always the second. Because by the first definition, I'm a pissant.
March 5, 2008
muamor commented on the word pissant
Blaim Microsoft...
March 5, 2008
srkrause commented on the word pissant
Perhaps a Volkswagen/insect hybrid?
March 5, 2008
bilby commented on the word pissant
See piss-ant.
February 21, 2009