Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Lesser in seriousness or scale.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Small; petty; inferior
- noun Same as
petty .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Obs., except in legal language. Small; little; insignificant; mean; -- Same as
petty . - adjective an inferior civil officer, subordinate to the high constable.
- adjective a jury of twelve men, impaneled to try causes at the bar of a court; -- so called in distinction from the
grand jury . - adjective the stealing of goods of, or under, a certain specified small value; -- opposed to
grand larceny . The distinction is abolished in England. - adjective A fop; a coxcomb; a ladies' man.
- adjective (Eng. Law) the tenure of lands of the crown, by the service of rendering annually some implement of war, as a bow, an arrow, a sword, a flag, etc.
- adjective formerly, in England, the crime of killing a person to whom the offender owed duty or subjection, as one's husband, master, mistress, etc. The crime is now not distinguished from murder.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
small orminor
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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_Le petit lundi_ of the Empress was not so _petit_ as I expected; there were at least four or five hundred people present.
In the Courts of Memory, 1858 1875; from Contemporary Letters 1886
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Marx himself distinguishes between the proletariat - what most people today think of as the working class - and what he calls the petit-bourgeoisie - including the peasantry, artisans, and various entepreneurs.
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Just realised the link I gave you for "The vilain petit canard" (Andersen) is ONLY a text (it's in French and you can print it if you want) ...
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At school, when her hair-bow was called "petit bourgeois" by a teacher, she wore a bigger one.
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We ordered mid-size ones (politely referred to as petit) for about $4 each and savored every bite on the sunny terrace outside.
Dr. Irene S. Levine: Ice Cream Worth the Trip: A Ferry Ride to Vieux-Levis, Quebec 2010
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Small wonder that orgasm has so often been likened to decease and gets referred to as the petit mort or little death.
BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES ROBERT ROWLAND SMITH 2010
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Small wonder that orgasm has so often been likened to decease and gets referred to as the petit mort or little death.
BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES ROBERT ROWLAND SMITH 2010
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The torn-up note, which would come to be known as the petit bleu, was a perfect example of this incompetence.
Emancipation Michael Goldfarb 2009
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And having a proletarian spirit means to struggle without rest against what we could call petit bourgeois weaknesses [applause], petit bourgeois defects
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One of twelve men, called a petit jury, whose duty it is to try causes, civil or criminal, in the county court and sessions, or circuit and oyer and terminer.
Civil Government for Common Schools Henry C. Northam
gulyasrobi commented on the word petit
"petit" "Petit" in Hungarian means: Pete (him)
August 1, 2012