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], finicky, pickyRelated 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, prissyNear Antonyms affable, breezy, carefree, devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky, lackadaisical, laid-back, low-pressure, relaxed; flexible, lax, loose; lenient, permissive; uncritical; indiscriminating, undiscriminatingAntonyms 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, demanding, taxing, toilsomeRelated Words difficult, formidable, hard, herculean, rough, rugged, stiff, strenuous, testing, tough; oppressive, trying; rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, strict, stringentNear Antonyms easy, effortless, facile, simple, smoothAntonyms 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, snobbish, 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, swellheadedNear Antonyms democratic, egalitarian; egoless, humble, modest, unpretentious; antielitist, antisnob