All 10 Uses

petty
in
The Hunt for Red October
(Auto-generated)

In the galley aft a petty officer was standing still, holding a warm loaf of bread and looking curiously at the bulkhead-mounted speaker.
Chpt 2.

petty officer = non-commissioned officer
The quartermaster, a starshina (petty officer), dialed the annunciator to the STOP position.
Chpt 2.
A petty officer pulled on the hydraulic control levers.
Chpt 7.
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.
Chpt 13.
The petty officer saw it first.
Chpt 13. *
The directional propellers worked them carefully into place and a petty officer made certain that the mating skirt was securely fastened.
Chpt 14.
Andre Katyskin, a cook petty officer from Leningrad.
Chpt 15.
The starpom flipped the switches himself, reaching past the petty officer.
Chpt 17.
The strength of his enlisted crew, unlike that of Western crews, resided much more in his eleven michmanyy (warrant officers) than in his glavnyy starshini (senior petty officers).†
Chpt 1. *
Butler and his four most senior petty officers were already tending to the nuclear tea kettle aft.†
Chpt 15.

Definitions:

(1) (petty as in: a petty crime)
of less importance -- at times implying insignificance
(2) (petty as in: don't be petty)
unpleasantly focusing on an unimportant flaw; or attempting to make someone suffer for an unimportant wrong
(3) (petty as in: petty officer)
a non-commissioned officer

Petty officer typically refers to a Navy or Coast Guard officer who is subordinate to commissioned officers and chief petty officers.
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)