pettifogger
/ˈpɛtɪˌfɑɡɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
Example Sentences
- "Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument."
- ""An inn, or a tavern . . . these are places where greasy citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most unhappy victims."
- "This gentleman (for such he was, however strange ladies who class country attorneys with vulgar pettifoggers in fashionable novels may deem the assertion) was the son of a brave officer,..."
- ". . .yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger, to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness. . . ."
- ""Donald Hughes, well known in Minneapolis as a conscienceless shyster, was placed in charge of the case. . . . Mr. Edgerton, a high class, reputable lawyer, was called in of counsel from another city to lend respectability to the crooked, unprincipled, blackmailing pettifogger, Hughes.""
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɛtɪˌfɑɡɚ/
- British English: /ˈpɛtɪˌfɒɡə/