Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pettifogging.
  • noun A pettifogger.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Lawyerlike; legal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective legal; like a lawyer
  • noun A lawyer.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin leguleius pettifogger, from lex, legis, law.

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Examples

  • And, on looking again at one case of '_thereafter_,' viz. at page 79, it seems impossible to determine whether he uses it in the classical English sense, or in the sense of leguleian barbarism.

    Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 1 Thomas De Quincey 1822

Comments

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  • An attorney whose methods are underhanded, petty and disreputable.

    May 12, 2008