as in slight
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
only niggling differences between the original Broadway musical and the film version that followed
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in complaining
to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant
you know it drives me crazy when you niggle like that
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of niggling
Andy Naylor, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2025
The sellers got slightly more than their asking price without any niggling 11th-hour negotiations.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 29 Aug. 2024
And yet, a niggling sense of loss remains after the season 5 finale; many of Diana’s most important moments and relationships are relegated to a handful of scenes.
—Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 10 Nov. 2022
Mark Carey, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Numerous niggling absences across the pre-season programme, plus the loss of Adam Webster for most of the campaign with knee ligament damage sustained in a non-contact incident in training during the camp in Spain in July, do not bode well on that front.
—Andy Naylor, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2025
The sellers got slightly more than their asking price without any niggling 11th-hour negotiations.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 29 Aug. 2024
And yet, a niggling sense of loss remains after the season 5 finale; many of Diana’s most important moments and relationships are relegated to a handful of scenes.
—Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 10 Nov. 2022
Verb
By making a subtle tweak out of possession, Slot looks to have addressed an issue that was niggling away at his side despite last season’s title victory.
—Mark Carey, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for niggling
Adjective
-
They are made of cotton with a slight stretch, but still have structure in the front.—
Chaunie Brusie,
Parents,
7 Oct. 2025
-
Herro was an All-Star last year while Ball wasn’t; Herro’s injury gives the Hornets a slight edge in these rankings.—
Law Murray,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
And the truth is, other nations should stop complaining — and start learning.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
-
Thus, unlike disgruntled newspaper readers, whose only resort was to write an angry letter to the editor, radio listeners could now vent their frustrations by going over the heads of a local affiliate and complaining directly to the government.—
Thomas Doherty,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
There's a low nominal cost, but the fact is there was a really significant cost because of the bureaucracy and time and uncertainty, with a lot of companies tied up with it.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
7 Oct. 2025
-
But analysts believe that figure was nominal if anything.—
Rebecca Rubin,
Variety,
6 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Venus in Virgo loves precision, but be careful not to slide into scarcity thinking or nitpicking your progress.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
14 Sep. 2025
-
That might seem like nitpicking, except this is a franchise that has had the luxury of starting-caliber linemen as reserves.—
Zach Berman,
New York Times,
17 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
But for his wife, the damage is deeper than a petty argument over a pet.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
5 Oct. 2025
-
Throughout the summer, Joanne leads her lovable, chaotic crew through a season of strikeouts, petty rivalries, conservative-politician sponsors, and sexy carwash fundraisers gone wrong.—
Jesse Whittock,
Deadline,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Joy Randolph and John Early, as the two Afterlife Coordinators, have a quibbling charisma, but the movie should have done more with all its possible versions of paradise, figuring out how to use them comedically instead of just as easy punchlines.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
10 Sep. 2025
-
When the murder of 100,000 people, many of them women and children, is mentioned or denounced, or when someone dares to use terms such as genocide, ethnocide, ethnic cleansing or similar, most people choose to take issue with the characterization, quibbling over semantics.—
Uriel Kon
September 2,
Literary Hub,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
On a soupy September morning in northeast Wisconsin, a blue semi-truck arrives at Tisch Mills Farm Center in the tiny town of Carlton.—
Miranda Dunlap,
jsonline.com,
6 Oct. 2025
-
In an ideal world, a tiny home could provide the ideal solution for in-laws to have space to visit your home for extended visits.—
Chaunie Brusie,
Parents,
6 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
With five blades sandwiched between two moisturizing bars, this razor speeds up the entire process (no fussing around with shaving cream), nourishing dry skin and making nicks a rare occurrence.—
Sophia Panych,
Allure,
16 Sep. 2025
-
This was the mid 1980s and tandem skydiving hadn’t been popularized yet, so his father, Roger, adjusted accordingly by stuffing carpet padding into the leg pads to stop him from fussing.—
Angelina Liu,
People.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Niggling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/niggling. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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