pettifogger

Definition

Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.

Etymology

petty + fogger

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,..."