Quibble vs Pettifogger - What's the difference?
quibble | pettifogger |
A trivial or minor complaint, objection or argument.
A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; a cavil.
* I. Watts
(obsolete) A pun.
To complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.
Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections.
* 1809 , , Knickerbocker's History of New York , ch. 39:
An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
* 1822 , , The Fortunes of Nigel , ch. 11:
* 1885 , The Bay State Monthly , Vol. 3, No. 6:
* 1926 June 28, "
As nouns the difference between quibble and pettifogger
is that quibble is a trivial or minor complaint, objection or argument while pettifogger is someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections.As a verb quibble
is to complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.quibble
English
Noun
(en noun)- He harped on his quibble about how the dark red paint should be described as carmine rather than burgundy.
- Quibbles have no place in the search after truth.
Synonyms
* SeeVerb
(quibbl)- They are constantly quibbling over insignificant details.
Synonyms
* SeeReferences
pettifogger
English
Noun
(en noun)- 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.
- . . .yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger , to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness. . . .
National Affairs: Blind Mans Huff," Time :
- "Donald Hughes, well known in Minneapolis as a conscienceless shyster, was placed in charge of the case. . . . Mr. Edgerton, a high class, reputable lawyer, was called in of counsel from another city to lend respectability to the crooked, unprincipled, blackmailing pettifogger , Hughes."