pettifogger

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pet=ti=fog=ger

CIDE DICTIONARY

pettifogger, n. 

 A lawyer who deals in petty cases; an attorney whose methods are mean and tricky; an inferior lawyer.  [1913 Webster]
"A pettifogger was lord chancellor."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pettifogger, n.
1 a rascally lawyer; an inferior legal practitioner.
2 a petty practitioner in any activity.

Derivative

pettifoggery n. pettifogging adj.

Etymology

PETTY + fogger underhand dealer, prob. f. Fugger family of merchants in Augsburg in the 15th-16th c.

THESAURUS

pettifogger

Philadelphia lawyer, ambulance chaser, belittler, bunco artist, bunco steerer, captious critic, cardsharp, cardsharper, carper, carpetbagger, caviler, censor, censurer, common scold, con artist, con man, confidence man, crimp, critic, criticizer, equivocator, faultfinder, frondeur, hairsplitter, hedger, horse coper, horse trader, jackleg, land pirate, land shark, land-grabber, momus, mortgage shark, mystificator, mystifier, nitpicker, obscurantist, palterer, picayune critic, pitchman, prevaricator, pussyfoot, pussyfooter, quibbler, scold, shark, sharp, sharper, sharpie, shortchanger, shuffler, shyster, slicker, smellfungus, spieler, tergiversator

ROGET THESAURUS

pettifogger

Lawyer

N lawyer, attorney, legal counsel, counsel, counsellor, counsellor at law, attorney at law, jurist, legist, civilian, pundit, publicist, juris consult, legal adviser, advocate, barrister, barrister at law, King's or Queen's counsel, K, C, Q, C, silk gown, leader, sergeant-at-law, bencher, tubman, judge, bar, legal profession, bar association, association of trial lawyers, officer of the court, gentleman of the long robe, junior bar, outer bar, inner bar, equity draftsman, conveyancer, pleader, special pleader, solicitor, proctor, notary, notary public, scrivener, cursitor, writer, writer to the signet, S, S, C, limb of the law, pettifogger, vakil, legal beagle, legal secretary, legal assistant, law student, learned in the law, at the bar, forensic, esquire, esquired, banco regis.