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petty
in a sentence
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  • Delegate petty matters to your staff and keep your focus on important things.
  • She has a record of petty theft.
  • 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
  • He confesses to many things, petty acts of vandalism and theft, that Connor couldn't care less about.   (source)
    petty = insignificant (unimportant)
  • Such details might have alarmed Mr. Eberhardt more than the petty acts of vandalism.   (source)
    petty = of less importance
  • Every petty defect of the world enraged him, all the waste and stupidity and slowness of men, and all the irritants of nature too, biting flies and warping wood and the briars that ripped his cloak.   (source)
    petty = insignificant (unimportant)
  • HALE: Proctor, I cannot think God be provoked so grandly by such a petty cause.   (source)
    petty = unimportant
  • I'm dying to tell you about another one of our clashes, but before I do I'd like to say this: I think it's odd that grown-ups quarrel so easily and so often and about such petty matters.   (source)
  • To-morrow, and to-morrow, and tomorrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
    To the last syllable of recorded time;
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death.   (source)
    petty = of less importance
  • And to be quite honest, Mrs. Dando, the last thing Michael needs is to be troubled by petty things like football and school.   (source)
    petty = less important
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  • And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances.   (source)
    petty = insignificant (unimportant)
  • He's a petty thief, a nobody.   (source)
    petty = of less importance
  • ...to seek, resolutely, the true and indestructible value that lay hidden in the petty and wearisome incidents, and ordinary characters with which I was now conversant.   (source)
    petty = unimportant
  • If your wish is to become really a man of science and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics.   (source)
  • All extinguished for nothing but petty pleasure and revenge.   (source)
  • Meanwhile every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark.   (source)
  • On and on he went, through the absurd vices, drunken brawls, and petty slapping squabbles, all told in that same slippery, grinning voice.   (source)
    petty = insignificant (unimportant)
  • Pasiphae and her petty vengeances.   (source)
  • Individually, no member of the Party owns anything, except petty personal belongings.   (source)
  • Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds.   (source)
  • These supplied material for petty activity to a mind that would otherwise have been eaten up with rust.   (source)
  • The founders of the greater part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be traced, from the petty and obscure beginnings of their traffic, at periods generally much posterior to the Revolution, upward to what their children look upon as long-established rank, Prior to the Revolution there is a dearth of records; the earlier documents and archives of the Custom-House having, probably, been carried off to Halifax, when all the king's officials accompanied…   (source)
    petty = unimportant
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  • Don't be petty.
    petty = unpleasantly focused on unimportant things
  • Petty would be saying, "New number, who dis?"   (source)
    petty = attempting to make someone suffer for an unimportant wrong
  • He didn't want to lose, but he didn't want to be petty, either.   (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Realize how petty you've become.   (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant flaws
  • We can be petty little creatures with...   (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
  • 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)
  • I don't miss that smug look that crosses his face. Petty.   (source)
    petty = unpleasantly focused on unimportant things
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  • All very petty.   (source)
    petty = focusing on unimportant things
  • She's so petty.   (source)
    petty = attempting to make someone suffer for an unimportant wrong
  • Petty.   (source)
  • I'm not being petty.   (source)
  • The bookkeeper's life was made up of innumerable little pettinesses.†   (source)
  • Love has its childishness, other passions have their pettinesses.†   (source)
  • They pounce on the idea, and distort it, and then work it out so pettily and unworthily.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • I make them lie with me sometimes, for I am very tired of the ladies of the town, of their coquetries, of their jealousies, of their quarrels, of their humours, of their pettinesses, of their prides, of their follies, and of the sonnets which one must make, or have made, for them.†   (source)
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  • She is the chief petty officer responsible for the review.
  • Pete, now a navy chief petty officer stationed in San Diego, came home to see Louie off.†   (source)
  • Chief Petty Officer Kyle†   (source)
  • Next we flew back across the country to visit the huge family of Petty Officer James Suh.†   (source)
  • "We do a lot of record keeping," Petty Officer Powell replied.†   (source)
  • The petty officer saw it first.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • The trident literally stuck so deep into my chest that the leading petty officer had to pull it out of my skin.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Brown demonstrated great foresight by gathering needed medical supplies for the injured man.†   (source)
  • He studied it for a minute, then thrust it under the gaze of Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon.†   (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)
  • Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts's Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, was also hung on the wall.†   (source)
  • Costello, a chief petty officer, never passed a weekend without having several officers' wives beg him to slake his appetite for flesh in delightfully squalid hotels.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • Petty Officer Monsoor's actions could not have been more selfless or clearly intentional.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Powell fell forward in his chair and carefully snubbed out his cigarette.†   (source)
  • And he ordered Lieutenant Ismay and our leading petty officer student, "Drop, and push 'em out.†   (source)
  • "This man here is Ishmael Chambers," Petty Officer Powell explained.†   (source)
  • A petty officer pulled on the hydraulic control levers.†   (source)
  • Andre Katyskin, a cook petty officer from Leningrad.†   (source)
  • The quartermaster, a starshina (petty officer), dialed the annunciator to the STOP position.†   (source)
  • The starpom flipped the switches himself, reaching past the petty officer.†   (source)
  • Morgan thought it was a great idea, and he introduced me to a recruiting officer in a nearby town, Petty Officer First Class Beau Walsh.†   (source)
  • A lot of times the chief leaves, the LPO—lead petty officer—becomes the chief, and then someone else becomes LPO.†   (source)
  • Ishmael Chambers, in the last light of day, found himself seated in the office of the lighthouse chief petty officer, a large man named Evan Powell.†   (source)
  • U.S. Navx photo bv Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon Petty Officer Matthew Axelson in combat gear, ready to face the enemy.†   (source)
  • Usually you have a chief petty officer (E7), who's the senior enlisted guy, and an LPO, the lead petty officer.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Powell kept an immaculate desk—a calendar blotter, twin upright pen stands, a nearly full ashtray, a telephone.†   (source)
  • Courtesy of Daniel J. Murphv, Esq. Petty Officer Danny Dietz provided our covering fire all afternoon.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer/Planner†   (source)
  • Right around this time, I was assigned a minder, Petty Officer First Class Jeff Delapenta (SEAL Team 10), who would never leave my side.†   (source)
  • I forget who the winner was, probably some hickory-tough farm boy petty officer, but he was a couple of minutes better than I was.†   (source)
  • James, like his close buddy Shane, was another inordinately tough SEAL, a petty officer second class.†   (source)
  • I detached from SDVT I and joined SEAL Team 5, where I was appointed leading petty officer (LPO) to Alfa Platoon.†   (source)
  • They decided that Shane should be replaced by Petty Officer Danny Dietz, a thirty-four-year-old I had known well for years.†   (source)
  • We went to Arlington National Cemetery afterward to visit the graves of Lieutenant Mike McGreevy Jr. and Petty Officer First Class Jeff Lucas, of Corbett, Oregon.†   (source)
  • Photo by DCl Photography, Randx Adger Petty Officer First Class Jeff Taylor from Virginia Beach was another mighty Navy SEAL who answered our desperate call for help on the Hindu Kush.†   (source)
  • Inside, beyond the SEAL escort to the coffins, I saw a very hard combat veteran, Petty Officer Ben Saunders, one of Danny's closest friends, weeping uncontrollably.†   (source)
  • Our first classroom involved meeting our leading petty officer instructor, Chief Bob Nielsen, another Gulf War veteran of several overseas deployments.†   (source)
  • So while I'm on the subject I'll explain how a farm boy from the backwoods of East Texas came to be made a petty officer first class and a team leader in the U.S. Navy SEALs.†   (source)
  • There was SGT2 Matthew Gene Axelson, not yet thirty, a petty officer from California, married to Cindy, devoted to her and to his parents, Cordell and Donna, and to his brother, Jeff.†   (source)
  • Courtesy of Suzanne Kristensen Chief Petty Officer Dan Healy, the iron man SEAL strategist who died with his team when the rescue helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Taliban in the Afghan mountains.†   (source)
  • Well, I hope they're proud of themselves, because they nearly broke my mom's heart, and if it had not been for the stern authority of Senior Chief Petty Officer Chris Gothro, I think she might have had a nervous breakdown.†   (source)
  • Somewhere up above us, swinging in his hammock, headset on, listening to rock-and-roll music, was Petty Officer Second Class Shane Patton, twenty-two-year-old surfer and skateboarder originally from Las Vegas, Nevada.†   (source)
  • We were called into a briefing: Lieutenant Mike Murphy, Petty Officer Matthew Axelson, Petty Officer Shane Patton, and I. We listened to the data and the requirements and still regarded it as just another op. But at the last minute there was a big change.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • Upon receiving enemy small arms fire from numerous alleys, Petty Officer Wasdin took up a firing position and returned fire.†   (source)
  • ON APRIL 3, 2002, KELLEY DROVE ADAM, now Petty Officer Second Class Brown, to the SEAL Team TWO compound at Little Creek to see him off on his first deployment.†   (source)
  • During this period, Petty Officer Wasdin consistently performed his demanding duties in an exemplary and highly professional manner.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Michael Thornton of SEAL Team One threw the body on his shoulders in a fireman's carry to bring him home.†   (source)
  • As the leading petty officer, he headed a twelve-man SEAL unit tasked with creating a premier maritime fighting force from the ranks of Colombia's marines.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Wasdin, along with the security team, stopped to suppress enemy fire which had pinned down the Ranger blocking force.†   (source)
  • Those who passed would be "platooned up"—assigned to one of twelve platoons on Team FOUR, each comprising sixteen men: two officers, a chief petty officer, and thirteen enlisted.†   (source)
  • In one of Adam's earliest performance evaluations while in Golf Platoon, Harley wrote: Despite his limited experience, Petty Officer Brown's initiative and determination ensured 100 percent success in his [platoon's] department.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • In the galley aft a petty officer was standing still, holding a warm loaf of bread and looking curiously at the bulkhead-mounted speaker.†   (source)
  • Later, while attempting to suppress enemy fire, during an attempted link-up for evacuation of the helicopter crash site, Petty Officer Wasdin was wounded a third time.†   (source)
  • The directional propellers worked them carefully into place and a petty officer made certain that the mating skirt was securely fastened.†   (source)
  • Petty Officer Wasdin was the member of a security team in support of an assault force that conducted an air assault raid into an enemy compound and successfully apprehended two key militia officials and twenty-two others.†   (source)
  • Behind him an ensign and a senior petty officer were monitoring instruments and preparing to deploy the manipulator arm, attached before they sailed, which carried a television camera and floodlights.†   (source)
  • By his superb initiative, courageous action, and complete dedication to duty, Petty Officer Wasdin reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest tradition of the United States Naval Force.†   (source)
  • To a petty officer who then advanced from the gate he said, "Thy comrade died like a soldier.†   (source)
  • At a signal passed down from the deck, and communicated to the hortator by a petty officer stationed on the stairs, all at once the oars stopped.†   (source)
  • Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting petty officer Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but thunder.†   (source)
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  • These people were something Germanic and sectarian, crossbred with seventh-generation Puritans — an industrious but fervent mix that produced, in addition to the usual collection of virtuous, lumpen farmers, three circuit riders, two inept land speculators, and one petty embezzler — chancers with a visionary streak and one eye on the horizon.†   (source)
  • Maybe he wasn't with Genevieve and now I've just done a very petty thing out of spite.†   (source)
  • We knew all the neighbors, everyone looked out for everyone else's kids, and there was basically no crime other than petty theft.†   (source)
  • But if every man has his strengths, one of the Bishop's was that he was never more than a step away from petty protocol and an inherent sense of superiority.†   (source)
  • Gita has enough issues dealing with petty jealousies over her job in the administration building, her friendship with the seemingly protected Cilka, and, of course, visits from her boyfriend, the Tatowierer.†   (source)
  • It was like a jolt that stopped us in our tracks and forced us to look up from the pettiness of our daily lives.†   (source)
  • But sibling relationships are often fraught with petty tortures.†   (source)
  • Wanted for petty crime.†   (source)
  • The random stops, questioning, and harassment dramatically increase the risk of arrest for petty crimes.†   (source)
  • Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.†   (source)
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  • If one grave in a graveyard looks like a target for petty vandals, that is the ghoul-gate.†   (source)
  • He was not a petty God.†   (source)
  • Mine was to be the small life, my ambitions the petty ones.†   (source)
  • But everbody saying the judge wife be good friends with Miss Holbrook and how a regular sentence be six months for petty stealing, but Miss Holbrook, she get it pushed up to four years.†   (source)
  • Just petty tricks.†   (source)
  • Professorji was a good man, by his lights, but he didn't seem the same caring teacher who, in sleek blue American aerograms only months before, had tempted Prakash, his best engineering student, to leave the petty, luckless world of Jullundhar.†   (source)
  • At that crab dinner, I was so mad about what she said about my hair that I wanted to embarrass her, to reveal in front of everybody how petty she was.†   (source)
  • Next to this, the party stuff seemed petty.†   (source)
  • Dina works as a dispatcher at the Spruce Harbor police station, and as far as Molly can see there isn't much to stress over—a few drunk drivers, the occasional black eye, petty thefts, accidents.†   (source)
  • You can get sick of anything if you have too much of it, like all the petty luxuries my mother bought and quickly grew bored with.†   (source)
  • A long line of cars trailed behind me, and I felt anxious about holding them up; I marveled at how I could still have room to worry about such petty, ridiculous crap as whether the guy in the SUV behind me thought I was an excessively cautious driver.†   (source)
  • They didn't have time to dwell on petty arguments.†   (source)
  • My mind went back over some of Margaret's petty insults.†   (source)
  • These annoyances were petty, though, and Ender persuaded himself to accept them as another form of praise.†   (source)
  • And for all her infectious lightness of heart, I knew it was an extremely petty cavil that Kitsey never seemed very moved by anything.†   (source)
  • I'm petty enough to enjoy it because I think it makes him look stupid.†   (source)
  • We haven't seen a war since the border was closed, and there is hardly any crime, except for the occasional incident of vandalism or petty theft.†   (source)
  • I'm not a murderer, you know, just a petty criminal.'†   (source)
  • In a pinch, he reverts to his previous profession, petty theft.†   (source)
  • Jack didn't think he was that petty.†   (source)
  • I knew the last question sounded petty, but it hadn't come from spite.†   (source)
  • They are going to bring you their problems, no matter how petty, and demand that you solve them.†   (source)
  • The board review process included all these chief petty officers and master chiefs sitting down and reviewing a package of my accomplishments.†   (source)
  • I even robbed a petty drug dealer once.†   (source)
  • Without pettiness.†   (source)
  • Petty Officers James Suh and Shane Patton reached the helo first.†   (source)
  • He reiterated his insistence that in Chicago "simplicity and reserve will be practiced and petty effects and frippery avoided."†   (source)
  • Is that petty enough?†   (source)
  • I think I might have heard that," Mae said, hearing herself, hearing how petty she sounded.†   (source)
  • Not some petty thief who probably only stole because they were hungry.†   (source)
  • There was no fairness involved with this decision, only a petty sort of revenge.†   (source)
  • I held Zephyros accountable, but my own petty greed had caused Hyacinthus's death.†   (source)
  • Teenage boys who work longer hours are much more likely to develop substance abuse problems and commit petty crimes.†   (source)
  • Shorter hours, fairer wages, four holidays a year with full pay, no more petty fines and charges for thread, for needles ….†   (source)
  • It was one of those situations, like the Olympics for the handicapped, that make all the restrictions seem petty.†   (source)
  • I am that petty.†   (source)
  • Now it seemed petty and foolish.†   (source)
  • like cheaters: dishonest, disrespectful, petty, spoiled.†   (source)
  • He'd tormented her as well, in small and petty ways at first, pinching her where the bruises wouldn't show, switching the shampoo in her bottle for bleach.†   (source)
  • Don't be petty, Bella.†   (source)
  • Weren't you the one in front of me at the Tom Petty concert who wouldn't sit down?"†   (source)
  • Except for the father, Cholly, whose ugliness (the result of despair, dissipation, and violence directed toward petty things and weak people) was behavior, the rest of the family—Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove—wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them.†   (source)
  • No." And now didn't she feel stupid and petty?†   (source)
  • We must not fall prey to petty divisions, but concentrate on our next point of attack—the OAS members when they come.†   (source)
  • Then I explained that I didn't like her because she was mean and petty and full of pretense.†   (source)
  • College seemed like a petty concern at the moment.†   (source)
  • In general, the arrogance, the petty infighting, the dishonesty, the desire for self-promotion, the orthodoxy.†   (source)
  • That must have made him look petty.†   (source)
  • "I would never call you silly or petty," I say sternly.†   (source)
  • A little petty thievery.†   (source)
  • I was beginning to realize that a black man did not have to accept the dozens of petty indignities directed at him each day.†   (source)
  • I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit.†   (source)
  • As he examines my cuts, I think of a dozen questions I could ask him, none of which will make him think that I'm strong and capable instead of childish and petty.†   (source)
  • Then, on the last day, I opened up and went to telling them what a petty bunch of farts they were.†   (source)
  • Several had seen or heard of family members getting carted off by authorities—or worse—for the pettiest of offenses.†   (source)
  • Stoker vilified vampyres, which has caused our kind endless petty troubles with humans?'†   (source)
  • Gary L. Wells and Richard E. Petty.†   (source)
  • I know it may seem petty to you, all this info desk drama, I wrote.†   (source)
  • Yet Charlie Conroy with his petty ambitions does not stand entirely alone.†   (source)
  • They constituted the sort of criminals, petty and otherwise, who sucked the life out of urban areas.†   (source)
  • The heartlessness, the pettiness, the foolishness of the situation was the talk of the Camp.†   (source)
  • But Ambiades was not going to move a step at the request of a worthless and insolent petty criminal.†   (source)
  • Butler and his four most senior petty officers were already tending to the nuclear tea kettle aft.†   (source)
  • The Nutt have traditionally engaged in prostitution and petty crime, and theirs is the world of intergenerational prostitution, in which mothers sell sex and raise their daughters to do the same.†   (source)
  • Mustn't let them think we British ladies are so petty as to indulge in arguments on the streets.†   (source)
  • What crime there is has been just petty stuff.†   (source)
  • He is among the top of the Second Class Petty Officers.†   (source)
  • The local newspapers highlighted the arrests until they grew so commonplace they were no longer a novelty; then they dropped Ira's scrapes with the law into the police log, with the rest of the petty-crime news.†   (source)
  • Their lives were filled with petty concerns.†   (source)
  • Life whirled about me a wind of petty concerns, as I've said.†   (source)
  • We were too many people in a small household for one person to take up so much space with what she considered to be my pettiness.†   (source)
  • Earl Petty could relax.†   (source)
  • He's a petty little drunk.†   (source)
  • "Rebecca," says Luke at last, "if this is about what happened between us that day—if this is some kind of petty revenge—"†   (source)
  • Green bottle shards poked up from the mortar at the top of the wall to dissuade intruders—robbery and petty theft were rampant in Addis—though the sight of roses lapping over the wall softened this deterrent.†   (source)
  • You finally left this nonsense of petty terrorism.†   (source)
  • He hung out with rough characters and from time to time fell into bad ways: petty crime, then some not so petty.†   (source)
  • Even our childhood rivalries and petty differences were no match for the spell of that music.†   (source)
  • Had taken a petty satisfaction in the fact that even if she ordered me that moment to mend her sleeve, I would have no time to do it.†   (source)
  • He's what Brother Jack calls a petty-petty individualist!†   (source)
  • Eight years before, when Eve had busted Mavis for petty theft, she'd looked great.†   (source)
  • I wrote about Fireball Roberts, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Junior Johnson.†   (source)
  • Adams's pride in his brilliant son could not have been greater, as he let him know when at times John Quincy grew discouraged with the pettiness and hypocrisies of politics.†   (source)
  • At times I knew it was I, not Patsy, who could be overly petty.†   (source)
  • Reduced to mute contempt and acts of petty vengeance, Annie stole cigarettes from the witch's purse and smoked them behind dripping rhododendrons, greenly contemplating how unwise it was to love, for those you loved would only die and leave you.†   (source)
  • Celia has judged 193 cases since she was elected to the People's Court, from petty thievery and family disputes to more serious crimes of medical malpractice, arson, and counterrevolutionary activities.†   (source)
  • 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)
  • The men of Horn Hill do not bow and scrape to petty lords.†   (source)
  • There was a war going on and no time to be wasted with petty new-guy treatment.†   (source)
  • No more the rumble of Hrothgar's horsemen, riding at midnight, chain-mail jangling in the whistling wind, cloaks flying out like wimpling wings, to rescue petty tribute-givers.†   (source)
  • We can be petty little creatures with petty little wickednesses.†   (source)
  • The United States of America has been Balkanized, has been divided into twenty petty nations so that it will never again be a threat to world peace.†   (source)
  • These staid men have become emotional because of their extreme exhaustion and have cultivated opinions and petty jealousies that will define their relationships for years to come.†   (source)
  • But all those petty angel politics.†   (source)
  • Can't you rise above those petty materialistic definitions?†   (source)
  • In another mile she would be able to distinguish the individual flavors of resentments, petty victories, rejections, and angry little skirmishes for dominance.†   (source)
  • A son who I have raised as best I can against …. vicious odds, against the corruption of weakness and petty revenges ….†   (source)
  • Max read many such stories concerning petty feuds, coveted heirlooms, and bloodstained jewels plucked warm, from an owner's hand.†   (source)
  • He wasn't vulnerable to that kind of pettiness.†   (source)
  • Of course, that's a petty doom.†   (source)
  • The dis—United States would fragment into several petty, squabbling autocracies, proving the contention of European monarchists and reactionaries that this harebrained experiment in democracy could not last.†   (source)
  • The supplies moved out to the ships, all to the encouraging bellows of Viking petty officers.†   (source)
  • Who would not prefer the use of force to the rebellions and revolutions that harm petty republics?†   (source)
  • Their disputes with Kemp's people seemed petty indeed against the weight of the disaster that had befallen the towns.†   (source)
  • Landers chalked it up to petty jealousy.†   (source)
  • Even the petty things never seemed quite right.†   (source)
  • What a petty man he turned out to be, giving up responsibility for a pretty face.†   (source)
  • A hoarse rasping whisper—querulous, poisoned with needless ill will—his retort was freighted with all the churlish indignation of petty power.†   (source)
  • For at the beginning Faramir spoke only of the errand upon which he had been sent out ten days before, and he brought tidings of Ithilien and of movements of the Enemy and his allies; and he told of the fight on the road when the men of Harad and their great beast were overthrown: a captain reporting to his master such matters as had often been heard before, small things of border-war that now seemed useless and petty, shorn of their renown.†   (source)
  • A friend of mine, meeting her for the first time and seeing us quarrel over something petty and watching her stride off in anger, said, "My God, she's beautiful!†   (source)
  • He was always on the lookout for the big break, but he could spend weeks on things that were quite petty.†   (source)
  • He, who gambled away tens of thousands at one roll of the dice and laughed at it, became more strict and more petty in his business, occasionally dreaming at night about money!†   (source)
  • It's petty to explore causes of titanic events.†   (source)
  • His first impulse, when he saw the horse and rider ahead, was to honk, both in self-advertisement, warning and greeting, but he remembered in time the seriousness of the occasion and did not do so, reflecting, after it was too late, that Thomas might feel he was snubbed, as if he had passed him in the street without speaking, and he was angry with Thomas for possibly having any such feeling about such petty matters, at such a time.†   (source)
  • The captain was, of course, and some of the petty officers.†   (source)
  • No petty issues, no political trivia, not even private affairs, were permitted to clutter up his intellect.†   (source)
  • Rod said urgently, "Jack, remember what I said about petty jealousies?†   (source)
  • He called visiting petty officials "sir"; and shouted at the natives under him; he was on the railway, working as a pumpman.†   (source)
  • The Ministry did not cut deals with petty criminals in my day, no sir, they did not!†   (source)
  • A petty misconception over a petty technology.†   (source)
  • But to say all this would sound petty to Art, and Fia and Dory would think she was being mean.†   (source)
  • Did you think, simply because you could challenge that petty war god, that you could stand up to me?†   (source)
  • To want more, to wish for yet more, he knew, would be petty.†   (source)
  • They start putting their trust in the wrong things, petty things.†   (source)
  • It would be petty to spoil it over this.†   (source)
  • He would be saccharin sweet with the guests, a petty tyrant when he was backstage with the help.†   (source)
  • "Petty tricks, Your Majesty," Cain said to Elena.†   (source)
  • It seemed worse than petty to leave Jacob feeling guilty about what he'd said.†   (source)
  • Every night before our mission, one of the senior petty officers would say, "C'mon now, guys.†   (source)
  • "She's a malicious, petty woman who doesn't like other people in general.†   (source)
  • Father, I couldn't put a man in jail for life over what was supposed to be a petty crime.†   (source)
  • If you succeed in giving guilders to petty children such as this," I gestured to Ambrose.†   (source)
  • I then apologized in excruciating detail about every vulgar, petty innuendo included in the song.†   (source)
  • It was a peevish thing to do, a petty sort of revenge, but remember who we are dealing with.†   (source)
  • He immediately discounted the thought; Oromis would never be so petty.†   (source)
  • But the daughter's was not a petty nature.†   (source)
  • I'm afraid it will sound stupid and petty and trivial.'†   (source)
  • Miles suspected Otis was more than the petty criminal that the rest of his family was.†   (source)
  • I knew I sounded petty and jealous, but there was no other way to handle this.†   (source)
  • I would have never imagined that Jake could be so petty and just plain mean.†   (source)
  • Downtown hooligan, pusher, petty thief, and addict?†   (source)
  • The men of Horn Hill do not bow and scrape to petty lords.†   (source)
  • She is petty and controlling, and I shan't let her ruin my friend's life.†   (source)
  • At their worst, politicians (like the rest of us) can be petty, venal, and self-centered.†   (source)
  • Resisted because it would be petty and unprofessional.†   (source)
  • Mundanes, Downworlders, petty crooks ….†   (source)
  • Did you really think you could render me helpless with such a petty, transparent trick?†   (source)
  • No more petty worries of airheaded youths.†   (source)
  • It would look petty if you don't pay a man who saved your life the appropriate respect.†   (source)
  • Carefully, point by point, he would show how these were petty details.†   (source)
  • But now, no one was willing to waste energy on a petty hate when so much work remained.†   (source)
  • Let's not quarrel about such a petty misunderstanding.†   (source)
  • But he made her speechless, made her overwhelming instinct seem petty, confused.†   (source)
  • Telling herself it was petty, that it should have been over, didn't seem to matter.†   (source)
  • You say you hate the Clave, but you're the one who made them what they are now—petty and paranoid.†   (source)
  • He disliked the petty complaints about the prices, especially from the customers in Manhattan.†   (source)
  • We've identified a known dealer and petty thief who was found dismembered in one trench.†   (source)
  • Petty lords, you would call them, though they do not use such titles amongst themselves.†   (source)
  • Who says celestial beings can't be petty?†   (source)
  • In every village he paused to preach, and in the yards of petty lords as well.†   (source)
  • He could be petty and vindictive and callous and unfair, brutal and unyielding.†   (source)
  • So, you see, even these minor distinctions felt like petty theft.†   (source)
  • They ranked Adam Brown five out of thirty-two second class petty officers.†   (source)
  • She was too relieved, too grateful that I had not, for my own petty reasons, given her away.†   (source)
  • Lena looked at me like I was Earl Petty in Algebra, the second time around.†   (source)
  • I couldn't believe that she had become so worked up over something so petty.†   (source)
  • Becky the shoplifting pothead, I thought, and then immediately told myself I was being petty.†   (source)
  • Knowing how petty the old man could be, she had expected their rooms to be bleak and cheerless.†   (source)
  • And then all the petty schoolgirls are right sorry they've teased her so.†   (source)
  • For the greed and ambitions of all the petty kings?†   (source)
  • I told her about the car, not so petty, but she wanted to hear more.†   (source)
  • She didn't like the way it sounded when he said it…so petty, so dirty.†   (source)
  • Revenge sprang into her mind, nasty, petty revenge.†   (source)
  • Then they would rest, spinning out the hot hours in petty conversation or sleep.†   (source)
  • I could tell it was a plan because he was alone, and Earl Petty was almost never alone.†   (source)
  • I cannot decide which is worse—the envy or the small, petty way it makes me feel inside.†   (source)
  • He took it that these people refuse to be mastered by the pettier claims of time and conscience.†   (source)
  • The Brackens were petty lords, renowned for breeding horses.†   (source)
  • She was mother to a petty lord, a wealthy merchant upjumped by my grandsire.†   (source)
  • She wasn't speaking to me–in the juvenile, petty sense of the phrase.†   (source)
  • Recently I had found myself becoming petty, cold, and resentful.†   (source)
  • Petty thief, professional weasel, occasional dealer in illegals, and pitiful excuse for a humanoid.†   (source)
  • She handed Earl Petty's mom a clipboard with a pen attached to it.†   (source)
  • My bannermen include a dozen petty lords and a hundred landed knights.†   (source)
  • The Darklyns were petty kings during the Age of Heroes, and three took Hollard wives.†   (source)
  • He did not suffer petty lords ordering him about like some thrall.†   (source)
  • Immediately he was annoyed at his pettiness.†   (source)
  • Besides her eleven officers she carried a crew of about seventy petty officers and enlisted men.†   (source)
  • The police had arrested him for petty larceny, a grocery store.†   (source)
  • Quarrels and petty jealousies and maybe a couple of boys knifing each other.†   (source)
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