petty

Word family

pet·ty /ˈpeti/ adjectiveadj

1 UNIMPORTANTa petty problem, detail etc is small and unimportant 〔问题、细节等〕小的，琐碎的，不重要的 SYN trivial

petty squabbles

小口角

petty restrictions

小限制

2 GENEROUSunkind and caring too much about small unimportant things 小气的，小心眼的，心胸狭窄的；只关注琐事的

How can she be so petty?

她怎么会那么小心眼？

petty jealousy and spitefulness

小心眼的嫉妒和怨恨

3. petty crime SCCa crime that is not serious, for example stealing things that are not very valuable 轻罪

Examples from the Corpus

petty crime• How do three-strikers endure the thought of spending life in prison for a relatively petty crime?• Johnson had two prior convictions for residential burglaries and a history of petty crimes.• There's petty crime and crime on a grand scale, well organised.• If the government no longer differentiates between petty crime and murder, why should they?• As the years had progressed a series of petty crimes had seen him in remand homes, borstals and finally prison.• Stretched to the limit ... police chief says petty crime is going unchecked.• He has convictions there for a number of theft and similar petty crime offences since leaving St Patrick's.

4. petty criminal/thief etc a criminal whose crimes are not very serious 轻罪犯/小窃贼等

Examples from the Corpus

petty criminal/thief etc• Amongst them were pickpockets, alcoholics, pimps, drug peddlers and other petty criminals.• Over the years several have been the victim of petty criminals.• The Home Secretary was not about to be seen as going soft on the petty criminal.• Habitual petty thieves and drug addicts dumped on top of their already bulging caseload become their newest clients.• Before they met me, Steve and Paul were just petty criminals, didn't know nothing about nothing.• Most burglaries are the work of petty thieves on the look our for an easy opportunity.

5 GENEROUSa petty official is not important – used especially when they use their power as if they were important 〔官员〕不重要的，芝麻绿豆大的〔尤用于摆架子的官员〕

Some petty bureaucrat wanted all the documents in triplicate.

有些小官僚要求所有文件都一式三份。

—pettiness noun [uncountableU]

the pettiness of Hollywood

好莱坞的狭隘

Examples from the Corpus

petty• But we kept pushing forward and we fought fair and we tried not to be petty.• Sometimes he can be so petty about money.• So can a person caged in corporate life begin to assume huge anxieties about petty annoyances.• This isn't about some petty artistic vendetta.• I was too defiant to return to such an art school, so cramped, so bunged up with petty authority.• The meeting spent too much time on petty issues, and didn't address the real problem.• The sudden rivalries and petty jealousies.• We started having arguments over petty little things.• The new courts were designed to relieve police courts of petty offences.• a petty personal attack• And how petty those ambitions were, really, besides my family's happiness.

Origin petty

(1300-1400) Old French peti “small”

pet·ty adjectiveadj

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus