Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a petty manner.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a petty manner; frivolously.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a petty manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a petty way

Etymologies

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Examples

  • That and the fact that long after any pettily deriding comments have been swallowed up into the obscurity of the aether, the larger work will remain.

    "This is my dream. I make the path." readingthedark 2010

  • That and the fact that long after any pettily deriding comments have been swallowed up into the obscurity of the aether, the larger work will remain.

    "This is my dream. I make the path." readingthedark 2010

  • Are we “pettily reactionary and positively fatal to life”?

    Archive 2009-05-17 2009

  • It's always a long-winded, grandstanding, pettily partisan affair (show me a Council budget debate which isn't); this year's was no exception.

    There's seven hours of my life I'll never get back Stephen Tall 2007

  • He thought Christians were irrational, self-deceived, repressed, and arrogant; he took Christian morality to be pettily reactionary and positively fatal to life…3.

    Archive 2009-05-17 2009

  • It's always a long-winded, grandstanding, pettily partisan affair (show me a Council budget debate which isn't); this year's was no exception.

    Archive 2007-02-01 Stephen Tall 2007

  • Are we “pettily reactionary and positively fatal to life”?

    Verdict: guilty! 2009

  • China reacted the way a nation reacts: somewhat pettily.

    Scott Malcomson: Nationalism Is Back! Adieu, Davos Man? 2009

  • He thought Christians were irrational, self-deceived, repressed, and arrogant; he took Christian morality to be pettily reactionary and positively fatal to life…3.

    Verdict: guilty! 2009

  • It's really one that shouldn't be pettily dismissed, whether it completely works or not.

    GreenCine Daily: Interview. Darren Aronofsky. 2006

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