petty

Pluralpetties

1. 1
   narrow-mindedadjectivederogatory

   Of a person or behavior, narrow, grudging, and selfish in outlook, or so taken up with trivial matters as to ignore larger concerns.

   He was too petty to congratulate his rival on the win.

   Her petty fixation on the office seating chart blinded her to the real crisis.

   Similargrudging

   Oppositebroad-minded

   Note

   When the word is turned on people it judges character: the petty person begrudges, keeps score and cannot see past small matters, the opposite of broad-minded. Florence Nightingale, writing in 1856 about the Senior Purveyor at Balaclava, complains of the hindrance the pettiest official can make. Both pettier, pettiest and more petty, most petty are in use.

2. 2
   unimportantadjectivederogatory

   Of little or no importance or consequence.

   Their friendship ended over a petty squabble about a borrowed book.

   The report skipped the big problems and dwelt on petty details.

   Similarminor, insignificant, negligible, inconsequential, paltry

   Oppositeimportant, significant, major, serious

   Note

   Behind the word is French petit, which already meant young, small, inferior and insignificant before English took it over as Middle English peti. This sense keeps the last of those: a petty fault, petty squabbles, Shakespeare's petty traffickers dwarfed by great argosies. Trivial and minor say much the same, but petty usually carries a note of disdain.

3. 3
   out of spiteadjectivederogatorycolloquial

   Inclined to annoy or frustrate others out of spite over minor grievances; vindictive out of all proportion.

   When she lost the argument, she got petty and stopped answering his emails.

   Blocking your ex on every app because he kept the couch seems a little petty.

   Similarvindictive, vengeful

   Oppositemagnanimous, gracious, generous

   Note

   Acts of spite are the point here rather than a narrow outlook: someone gets petty, or is being petty, when they repay a small slight with a run of small annoyances. Roxane Gay, writing in 2021, sums up the usual construction with your manager is just being petty. Where the small-minded meaning describes a character, this one describes a move.

4. 4
   lower rankadjective

   Of secondary importance or lower rank.

   The petty nobility had titles but little land or influence at court.

   She served twelve years as a petty officer aboard a navy destroyer.

   Similarminor, lesser, junior, subordinate

   Oppositegrand, high

   Note

   Here the word ranks rather than sneers: petty cash, a petty officer and petty crimes are lesser in scale or grade, not contemptible. Its opposites are grand and high, which is why law can set petty offenses against grander ones, and why Milton's Samson can boast of walking about like a petty God, a god of the lower order.

5. 5
   small in sizeadjective

   Little or small in physical size.

   To morrow, and to morrow, and to morrow, / Creepes in this petty pace from day to day, / To the laſt Syllable of Recorded time: / And all our yeſterdayes, haue lighted Fooles / The way to duſty death.

   c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”

   Similarsmall, little, wee, slight, undersized

   Oppositelarge, big

   Note

   Shakespeare's Macbeth gives this sense its most famous line, in which tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day: a small, dragging step. Outside that echo, English usually leaves physical size to little and small, and keeps petty for what does not matter.

6. 6
   outdoor toiletnoundialectaleuphemisticcountable

   A polite word for an outbuilding used as a toilet.

   Grandmother remembered running out to the petty on frosty winter nights.

   Each row of cottages shared two petties in the back yard, emptied once a week.

   Similarouthouse, privy

   Note

   Nineteenth-century sanitary reports are full of the word: Robert Rawlinson's 1852 report to the General Board of Health notes a petty in a very filthy state and two petties to be walled. It is a dialect word and a euphemism, softer than privy, and it belongs to local speech rather than the standard language.

7. 7
   adjectivehistorical

   Belonging to the lowest grade or level of schooling.

   The parish paid a master to teach reading at the petty school.

   [B]y the assistance of that truly Christian gentlewoman, the Lady Elizabeth Hastings, he increased the number of petty schools throughout the island.

   1846, William Henry Teale, “The Life of Thomas Wilson, D.D., Bishop of Sodor and Man”

   Similarelementary, primary

   Note

   Older English schooling had its bottom rung here: the petty school or petty form taught small boys to read English before they moved on to Latin in the higher forms. A charity record of 1819 still requires boys to be put to some petty school to learn to read English, and the term lives on in histories of schools such as Westminster.

8. 8
   nounhistoricalcountable

   A school, or a class within one, attended by young boys.

   New boys who knew no Latin were placed in the petty until they caught up.

   The master of the petty taught thirty small boys their letters.

   Note

   The noun stands for the class itself, the same thing as a petty school or petty form, and ABC was another name for it. Being kept there carried a sting: William Hickey, recalling his early school days, calls a seat at the very bottom of the school disgraceful, and boys with no Latin stayed there until they could climb out.

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