Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Petty

Pet′ty (·ty̆), a. [Compar. Pettier; superl. Pettiest.] [OE. petit, F. petit; probably of Celtic origin, and akin to E. piece. Cf. Petit.] Little; trifling; inconsiderable; also, inferior; subordinate; as, a petty fault; a petty prince. Denham.

Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all. Milton.

Petty averages. See under Average. — Petty cash, money expended or received in small items or amounts. — Petty officer, a subofficer in the navy, as a gunner, etc., corresponding to a noncommissionned officer in the army.

☞ For petty constable, petty jury, petty larceny, petty treason, See Petit.

Syn. — Little; diminutive; inconsiderable; inferior; trifling; trivial; unimportant; frivolous.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.