| 释义 |
▪ I. pettifog, v.|ˈpɛtɪfɒg|
[app. a back-formation from pettifogger: cf. fog v.3 and pettifogging.]
1. intr. To act as a pettifogger; to plead or conduct a petty case in a minor court of law; to practise legal chicanery; also transf., to wrangle or quibble about small petty points.
1611Cotgr., Chicaner, to wrangle, or pettifog it; to spoyle, or perplex a cause with craftie, or litigious pleading. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. vii. 738 And cogge, And lie, and prate of Law, and pettifogge As craftily (sometimes) as many a one Who divers yeares hath studied Littleton. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 165 He will..rather pettyfog and turn common Barreter, than be out of Employment. c1867Symonds in Life (1895) II. 133 They accepted the whole, and were not trafficking or pettifogging about a portion. 1895Westm. Gaz. 18 June 1/3 ‘But what is this about a woman lifting up her voice in a law-court and pleading?’—‘Oh, in America you can do that in a local police-court; in a mayor's court women may pettifog.’
2. trans.
a. To plead (a case) with legal chicanery.
†b. loosely. To take by petty larceny.
1759D. Mallet Wks. I. 22 He pettyfogs a scrap from authors dead. 1858N. York Tribune 23 Oct. 4/5 [He] saw fit..to address to the Editor..a letter pettifogging the hard case of his master.
▪ II. † ˈpettifog, a. and n.1 Obs.
a. adj. = Pettifogging.
b. n. = Pettifogger.
1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. clxxxv. 821 That he shall have both the Civill and Common Lawyer and the pettifog Atturney against him. 1796C. Smith Marchmont III. 44 T'wont do this time—you must try again, old pettifog.
▪ III. † ˈpettifog, n.2 Obs.
Used as a paronomasia on petty fog = mist, and pettifogging.
1641Milton Prel. Episc. 19 And thus much for this cloud I cannot say rather then petty-fog of witnesses, with which Episcopall men would cast a mist before us. |