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petty
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

petty as in:  a petty crime

•
She handles petty crimes.
petty = small (less important)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    She has a record of petty theft.
  • •
    Delegate petty matters to your staff and keep your focus on important things.
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    Such details might have alarmed Mr. Eberhardt more than the petty acts of vandalism.  (source)
    petty = of less importance
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    All extinguished for nothing but petty pleasure and revenge.  (source)
    petty = unimportant
  • •
    Without pettiness.†  (source)
    pettiness = the quality of being unimportant
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    Several had seen or heard of family members getting carted off by authorities—or worse—for the pettiest of offenses.†  (source)
    pettiest = least important
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    Then, in a very great desire of rebellion and unleashing of all her hatreds, "The pettier and more tawdry it is, the more blame to Main Street.†  (source)
    pettier = less important
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    In the interest of a civil environment, Rosa Hubermann and Frau Holtzapfel were kept separated, though some things were above petty arguments.  (source)
    petty = insignificant
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    Like Janice, she is acutely aware of every mean act and unkindness and lie and betrayal of which she has ever been guilty, and she recognizes that she still has the capacity for selfishness, pettiness, and cruelty; she yearns to transcend her past even as she quakes at the fortitude required to do so.†  (source)
    pettiness = the quality of being unimportant
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    You may have sincerity, but you have no modesty; out of the pettiest vanity you expose your sincerity to publicity and ignominy.†  (source)
    pettiest = least important
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    He took it that these people refuse to be mastered by the pettier claims of time and conscience.†  (source)
    pettier = less important
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    He confesses to many things, petty acts of vandalism and theft, that Connor couldn't care less about.  (source)
    petty = insignificant (unimportant)
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    It was, perhaps, a sign of pettiness in so great a man, but even the most sober of us is liable to have his head turned by success.†  (source)
    pettiness = the quality of being unimportant
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petty as in:  don't be petty

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Don't be petty.
    petty = unpleasantly focused on unimportant things
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    Petty would be saying, "New number, who dis?"  (source)
    Petty = attempting to make someone suffer for an unimportant wrong
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    He didn't want to lose, but he didn't want to be petty, either.  (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    I learned that he could be petty, such as when he'd take a bite of the qurma his wife placed before him, sigh, and push it away.  (source)
    petty = make a big deal of unimportant things
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    The bookkeeper's life was made up of innumerable little pettinesses.†  (source)
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    Meanwhile the warlocks scorned the Fair Folk for their inability to lie, their hidebound customs, and their penchant for pettily annoying mundanes by curdling their milk and stealing their cows.†  (source)
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    I admit: I had always thought I was above this kind of typical teenage pettiness, but I felt a lump in my throat throughout lunch.  (source)
    pettiness = focusing on an unimportant flaws
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    Anyone who's so petty and pedantic at the age of fifty-four was born that way and is never going to change.  (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
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    Love has its childishness, other passions have their pettinesses.†  (source)
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    They pounce on the idea, and distort it, and then work it out so pettily and unworthily.†  (source)
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    Realize how petty you've become.  (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant flaws
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    The smaller human elements were kept out of sight; the pettinesses that enter so largely into all earthly living and doing were disguised by the accident of lover and loved-one not being on visiting terms; and there was hardly awakened a thought in Boldwood that sorry household realities appertained to her, or that she, like all others, had moments of commonplace, when to be least plainly seen was to be most prettily remembered.†  (source)
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    We can be petty little creatures with...  (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
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petty as in:  petty officer

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She's a petty officer second class.
petty officer = non-commissioned officer
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She is the chief petty officer responsible for the review.
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    Pete, now a navy chief petty officer stationed in San Diego, came home to see Louie off.  (source)
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    "We do a lot of record keeping," Petty Officer Powell replied.  (source)
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    A petty officer pulled on the hydraulic control levers.  (source)
    petty officer = non-commissioned officer
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    Petty Officer Wasdin's exceptional professional ability, initiative, and loyal devotion to duty reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.  (source)
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    Petty Officer Brown's professionalism and devotion to duty reflected great credit upon himself and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.  (source)
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    Somebody was always complaining about the food or my mother was having a fight with Micky Nash because she'd caught her with a petty officer in her room.  (source)
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    Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts's Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, was also hung on the wall.†  (source)
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    Next we flew back across the country to visit the huge family of Petty Officer James Suh.†  (source)
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    He studied it for a minute, then thrust it under the gaze of Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon.†  (source)
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    Petty Officer Monsoor's actions could not have been more selfless or clearly intentional.†  (source)
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    He stood there in his petty officer's uniform, tall and almost shockingly broad-shouldered and thin-hipped, his cap pushed slightly back, the sun lighting on the patch of reddish hair that showed.†  (source)
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    It I have to bust a petty officer everytime one of them does something like that, pretty soon I won't have anything but privates.†  (source)
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