Pissant

//ˈpɪsænt// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ant.
  2. 2
    An insignificant person. derogatory, slang

    "It is the beauty of well designed fascism that it gives every piss-ant an ant hill to piss from."

  3. 3
    A person who adheres strictly to a rule or policy despite current circumstances. derogatory, slang

    "Their manager is a real pissant about break times."

  4. 4
    A person seemingly incapable of focusing on anything but the trivial, especially in the sense of trivial or irrelevant criticism. derogatory, slang
Adjective
  1. 1
    Insignificant or unimportant. sometimes, vulgar

    "This is our chance to make a name for ourselves; to show that we're not just some piss-ant white-bread mountain town."

Example

More examples

"It is the beauty of well designed fascism that it gives every piss-ant an ant hill to piss from."

Etymology

From piss + ant, because of the urine-like smell of anthills. Compare pismire.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.