PETTY (pettier, pettiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: pettier    , pettiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does petty mean? 

• PETTY (noun)
  The noun PETTY has 1 sense:

1. larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale)

  Familiarity information: PETTY used as a noun is very rare.

• PETTY (adjective)
  The adjective PETTY has 3 senses:

1. inferior in rank or status

2. (informal) small and of little importance

3. contemptibly narrow in outlook

  Familiarity information: PETTY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PETTY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

petit larceny; petty; petty larceny

Hypernyms ("petty" is a kind of...):

larceny; stealing; theft; thievery; thieving (the act of taking something from someone unlawfully)

• PETTY (adjective)

Comparative: pettier   
Superlative: pettiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inferior in rank or status

Synonyms:

junior-grade; lower-ranking; lowly; petty; secondary; subaltern

Context example:

a subordinate functionary

Similar:

junior (younger; lower in rank; shorter in length of tenure or service)

Derivation:

pettiness (the quality of being unimportant and petty or frivolous)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(informal) small and of little importance

Synonyms:

fiddling; footling; lilliputian; little; niggling; petty; picayune; piddling; piffling; trivial

Context example:

giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction

Similar:

unimportant (not important)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Derivation:

pettiness (lack of generosity in trifling matters)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Contemptibly narrow in outlook

Synonyms:

petty; small-minded

Context example:

disgusted with their small-minded pettiness

Similar:

narrow; narrow-minded (lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view)

Derivation:

pettiness (narrowness of mind or ideas or views)

 Context examples 

I’m sorry to have called you down over such a petty business, Mr. Holmes, but I thought the point of the second stain not corresponding with the first would interest you.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“There have,” said I, “been numerous petty thefts.”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the affair is a petty one, one of our little country crimes, which must seem too small for your attention, Mr. Holmes, after this great international affair.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But between ourselves, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a petty way as ever came before me.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A personality of smallness and egotism and petty underhandedness seemed to emanate from the letters themselves.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was kept chained in a pen at the rear of the fort, and here Beauty Smith teased and irritated and drove him wild with petty torments.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The encouragement Buck gave the rebels led them into all kinds of petty misdemeanors.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There was no grumbling, no bickering, nor petty quarrelling in the little cabin, and they often congratulated one another on the general happiness of the party.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

If your wish is to become really a man of science and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She was their earliest visitor in their settled life; and Captain Wentworth, by putting her in the way of recovering her husband's property in the West Indies, by writing for her, acting for her, and seeing her through all the petty difficulties of the case with the activity and exertion of a fearless man and a determined friend, fully requited the services which she had rendered, or ever meant to render, to his wife.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)