persnickety

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adjective

Definition of PERSNICKETY

1

hard to please <as she got older, she got more and more persnickety>

Synonyms choosy (or choosey), dainty, delicate, demanding, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking, fussbudgety, fussy, nice, old-maidish, particular, pernickety [chiefly British], persnickety, picky

Related Words hyperfastidious, overdemanding, ultrafastidious; discerning, discriminating, selective; insightful, knowledgeable; captious, carping, caviling (or cavilling), critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical; careful, meticulous, painstaking, punctilious, scrupulous; queasy (also queazy), squeamish; peevish, petulant, prickly, touchy; niminy-piminy, prim, prissy

Near Antonyms affable, breezy, carefree, devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky, lackadaisical, laid-back, low-pressure, relaxed; flexible, lax, loose; lenient, permissive; uncritical; indiscriminating, undiscriminating

Antonyms undemanding, unfastidious, unfussy

2

requiring much time, effort, or careful attention <lacked the patience to deal with such persnickety tasks as hanging wallpaper>

Synonyms arduous, burdensome, challenging, exacting, grueling (or gruelling), killing, laborious, onerous, persnickety, taxing, toilsome

Related Words difficult, formidable, hard, herculean, rough, rugged, stiff, strenuous, testing, tough; oppressive, trying; rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, strict, stringent

Near Antonyms easy, effortless, facile, simple, smooth

Antonyms light, nondemanding, unchallenging, undemanding

3

being or characteristic of a person who has an offensive air of superiority and tends to ignore or disdain anyone regarded as inferior <his persnickety attitude lost him some friends when they found out what he really thinks of “their kind”>

Synonyms aristocratic, elitist, high-hat, persnickety, potty, ritzy, snobby, snooty, snotty, toffee-nosed [chiefly British]

Related Words aloof, arrogant, bumptious, haughty, high-and-mighty, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-handed, hoity-toity, huffish, huffy, imperious, lordly, overweening, peremptory, pompous, presumptuous, pretentious, supercilious, superior, toplofty (also topliftical), uppity; biggety (or biggity) [Southern & Midland], bigheaded, egoistic (also egoistical), egotistic (or egotistical), prideful, self-conceited, self-important, self-satisfied, smug, stuck-up, swelled-headed, swellheaded

Near Antonyms democratic, egalitarian; egoless, humble, modest, unpretentious; antielitist, antisnob