He was capable of using lawyerly rhetoric, at times, to the brink of pettifoggery.
Source: wiktionary
Pettifoggery
//ˈpɛti.fɒɡ.ə.ɹi//
Synonyms for "pettifoggery" (57 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (12)
Strong matches (17)
Related words (28)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Sample sentences
4 total sentences available.
Yet even Harlan was to prove capable of grievous pettifoggery on the racial issue.
Source: wiktionary
[Frankfurter's reasoning in Beauharnais v. Illinois] struck Black and the other three Roosevelt appointees who joined his dissent as noxious pettifoggery[.]
Source: wiktionary
The idea that a minor bureaucratic restructuring could have made any difference in the time of Trump reflected how immune bureaucratic pettifoggery is to reality.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.