| 释义 |
▪ I. pettifogging, vbl. n.|ˈpɛtɪfɒgɪŋ|
[f. as pettifog v. + -ing1.]
The action of a pettifogger; legal trickery; chicanery, pettifoggery; quibbling.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Chicanerie, pety⁓fogging. 1611Cotgr., Chicanerie, wrangling, pettifogging; litigious or craftie pleading. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 171 (France) This Chiquanery (Petti-fogging) and multiplicitie of Pleaders, came first from the Popes Court, when his seat was at Avignon, (as my Author saith). 1651tr. De-las-Coveras' Don Fenise 129, I was forced to spend the greatest part of my goods in suites and pettifoggings, untill I was forced to leave my country. 1843H. Rogers Ess. (1860) III. 80 Number Ninety [Tract for the Times], that singular monument of logical pettifogging.
▪ II. pettifogging, ppl. a.|ˈpɛtɪfɒgɪŋ|
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
Acting as a pettifogger or rascally attorney; mean, shifty, quibbling; also, pertaining to or characteristic of pettifoggers.
1603Florio Montaigne ii. xxxvii, Petty-fogging Lawyer. 1604T. Wright Climact. Years (ed. 2) 12 He was..a petty⁓fogging Phisitian at his owne costs, as they be petty-fogging Lawyers thorow theyr owne sutes. 1649Milton Eikon. iv, To see some store of their Friends, and in the Roman, not the pettifogging sense, their Clients so neer about them. 1673Dryden Amboyna i. i, This Fiscal, who was..an ignorant Advocate in Rotterdam, such as in England we call a Petty-fogging Rogue. 1759Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xl, The character of this last man, said Dr. Slop,..seems to have been taken from some pettifogging lawyer amongst you. 1837Dickens Pickw. liii, ‘You are’, continued Mr. Pickwick,..‘a well-matched pair of mean, rascally, pettifogging robbers’. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. iv. 117 The pettifogging cunning which supposes the gossips of lobbies..to be the embodiment of statesmanship. |