1
as in lawyer
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2
as in quibbler
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Recent Examples of pettifogger
For nearly three years now, I’ve been fascinated by the performance art of this blustering pettifogger.
—
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pettifogger
Noun
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West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey is preparing for his team of lawyers to make their argument in front of the top court, a case defending the state's Save Women's Sports Act, which prohibits those who were assigned male at birth from playing on competitive female sports teams.—
Lauren Linder,
CBS News,
9 Jan. 2026
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Many others — Democrats, lawyers and other law enforcement officials — have watched the video with the conclusion that the ICE agent’s life was not at risk and the woman was not trying to ram her vehicle into him, based on the positioning of the tires.—
Ted Johnson,
Deadline,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The bubble-ists think that the Coreweave people are hopeless dreamers at best and shysters at worst.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
28 Sep. 2025
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To demonstrate that point in a video, a researcher told a robot arm to put a bunch of plastic grapes into a clear Tupperware container, then proceeded to shift three containers around on the table in an approximation of a shyster’s shell game.—
Eliza Strickland,
IEEE Spectrum,
12 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Any coaching purist will tell you that’s the benchmark aspiration.—
Jerry Brewer,
New York Times,
14 Jan. 2026
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Iranians have occasionally rallied around reformist candidates, but they, too, have been undermined by hard-line revolutionary purists.—
Robin Wright,
New Yorker,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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She was taken to Somerset County Jail pending a detention hearing, and it is not immediately known if Natarajan has retained an attorney.—
Angel Saunders,
PEOPLE,
15 Jan. 2026
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Her family called for peace and thanked the public for their support in a statement shared by their attorneys.—
N'dea Yancey-Bragg,
USA Today,
15 Jan. 2026
Noun
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While Davis was known as being a perfectionist to a fault, which sometimes led to clashes with cohorts on her many movie sets, this wasn't the case between the two actresses while filming 1961's Pocketful of Miracles.—
Angela Andaloro,
PEOPLE,
9 Jan. 2026
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Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist who spent years on each of his films and demanded dozens, sometimes hundreds, of takes per scene.—
Lane Brown,
Vulture,
17 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pettifogger.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pettifogger. Accessed 17 Jan. 2026.
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