# petty

Pronunciation: say "PET-ee" US/UK /ˈpɛt.i/, AUS /ˈpet.i/

## Adjective

1. Of a person or behavior, narrow, grudging, and selfish in outlook, or so taken up with trivial matters as to ignore larger concerns.
   - Simple: Caring too much about small things, and not kind or generous to others.
   - _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._
2. Of little or no importance or consequence.
   - Simple: Small and not important.
   - _Their friendship ended over a petty squabble about a borrowed book._
   - _The report skipped the big problems and dwelt on petty details._
3. Inclined to annoy or frustrate others out of spite over minor grievances; vindictive out of all proportion. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Ready to be mean to someone to get back at them for something small.
   - _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._
4. Of secondary importance or lower rank.
   - Simple: Less important or lower in rank than others.
   - _The petty nobility had titles but little land or influence at court._
   - _She served twelve years as a petty officer aboard a navy destroyer._
5. Little or small in physical size.
   - Simple: Small in size.
7. Belonging to the lowest grade or level of schooling.
   - Simple: Having to do with the first and lowest level of school.
   - _The parish paid a master to teach reading at the petty school._
   - _He spent two years in the petty form before moving up to Latin grammar._

## Noun

6. A polite word for an outbuilding used as a toilet. *(dialectal)*
   - Simple: A polite word for a small toilet in a hut outside the house.
   - _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._
8. A school, or a class within one, attended by young boys.
   - Simple: A class or school for little 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._

## Noun

9. A little schoolboy, small either in size or in his grade at school. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A young boy at school who is small, or who is in a low class.
   - _The master kept the petties busy with their letters while he heard the older boys recite._
   - _Beside the veterans, the new recruits were mere petties in the art of war._

## Origin

The adjective comes from Middle English peti, pety ("little, small; minor"), from Anglo-Norman and Middle French petit and Old French peti, petit, pitet ("young; little, small; inferior; insignificant"), ultimately of imitative origin; it is no longer thought to come from Celtic. It is a doublet of petit and petite, and the noun comes from the adjective.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/petty (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).