Pettyname/ˈpɛti/

• 1

  A surname.

pettyadj/ˈpɛt.i/

• 1

  derogatoryHaving little or no importance.

  • a petty fault    petty squabbles
  • Your minde is toſſing on the Ocean, / There vvhere your Argoſies vvith portly ſayle, / Like Signiors and rich Burgars on the flood, / Or as it vvere the Pageants of the ſea, / Doe ouer-peere the petty traffiquers / That curſie to them, do them reuerence / As they flie by them vvith their vvouen vvings.
• 2

  derogatoryOf persons or their behaviour: marked by or reflective of undesirably limited interests, sympathies, or views; begrudging, selfish, small-minded; also, preoccupied with subjects having little or no importance and not mindful of broader concerns.

  • Such literature may well be anathema to those who are too docile and petty for their own good.
  • That corporation is only slightly pettier than they are greedy, and they are overdue to reap the consequences.
• 3

  derogatoryinformalInclined to cause frustration or annoyance to others out of spite over minor grievances; extremely vindictive.

  • My cousin is so petty—I forgot his birthday and he's been making snarky comments all week.
  • All of the horrors that happen in the book are based on real incidents, including the burning of her father's books in their front yard. "It was just a very petty, ugly thing to do, to say 'Fuck you' to academics and intellectuals," she says. " I can't imagine losing my books, the books I love."
• 4

  historicalOf or relating to the lowest grade or level of school; junior, primary.

  • Friends are separated for long portions of time even while they live; at last they take their leave for ever: although, I remember, when you left me in the petty form at Westminster, I soon afterwards found you in a higher remove: and this world is only the petty form of the universe; so I not only expect to pass a social hour with you here, but am in hopes of a merry meeting in a better place; […]
  • This finishes their education in the under school, in which they have now been three years and a half, and they are next moved into the upper, and probably at the age of ten or eleven; six or seven being the age at which boys are generally sent into the petty form.
• 5

  Little or small in size.

  • To morrow, and to morrow, and to morrow, / Creepes in this petty pace from day to day, / To the laſt Syllable of Recorded time: / And all our yeſterdayes, haue lighted Fooles / The way to duſty death.
• 6

  Secondary in importance or rank; minor, subordinate.

  • petty cash    petty officer
  • 3. Out[law]. […] My ſelfe vvas from Verona baniſhed, / For practiſing to ſteale avvay a Lady, / And heire and Neece, alide vnto the Duke. / […] / 1. Out[law]. And I, for ſuch like petty crimes as theſe.

pettynoun/ˈpɛt.i/

• 1

  dialectalinformalAn outbuilding used as a lavatory; an outhouse, a privy.

  • If these houses had been built by his Lordship every one would have had his petty, at all events dividing the odour & also having a chance that some of the occupiers would clean out—but a common occupation is nobody's business, unless the owner of all the buildings takes it in hand.
  • Cottages occupied by Betty Hines and others; petty in a very filthy state, wants walling. Two petties belonging to Mr. James Parr to be walled, and one next Thomas Wilkinson's to be removed further off.
• 2

  historicalA class or school for young schoolboys.

  • […] I took my seat in what was denominated, "The Idle Class", that is, at the very bottom of the school, where all those who have not received some previous instruction in Latin are placed. I however soon got out of that disgraceful and ignorant form, passed with rapidity and eclat the under and upper petty, and entered into the upper first, […]
  • [S]uch a difference of age between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the question—a junior ensign being no more familiar with the commander-in-chief at the Horse-Guards; or a barrister on his first circuit with my Lord Chief Justice on the bench, than the newly-breeched infant in the Petties with a senior boy in a tailed coat.
• 3

  obsoleteA little schoolboy, either in grade or size.

  • [S]ome of them, which were the Petties and Punies of that ſchoole, whereof old Martin [Marprelate] was the maſter; though then he was but as ſome blinde and obſcure pariſh Clarke that taught in the Belfrie, not preſuming, as hee doth nowe, to preſſe into the Church, (that place in reſpect of the appurtenances being fitter for him) began but rawly with their little a, b, c.
  • As the maiden therefore vvas comming into the market place, (for there vvere the ſchools for peties kept, of reading and vvriting) the Decemvirs man (a broker to ſerve his maſters luſt) laid hold upon her, avovving that ſhe vvas his bond-ſervants daughter, and therefore his bond-maid: commanding her to follovv him, and threatning beſides, that if ſhe made any ſtays, he vvould have her avvay perforce.