Vocabulary Word
Word: petty
Definition: trivial; unimportant; very small; small-minded; petty-minded
Definition: trivial; unimportant; very small; small-minded; petty-minded
Sentences Containing 'petty'
And it is so seldom that a picture can have this petty realisation and at the same time be an expression of those larger emotional qualities that constitute good painting.
Their artistic instinct was free to attend to higher things, their knowledge of the science of picture making keeping them from many petty mistakes that a modern artist falls into.
And the fine portrait will express the larger and subordinate the petty individualities, will give you what is of value, and subordinate what is trivial in a person's appearance.
Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German can not tell you how it is bounded at any moment.
When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.
Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice.
interposed Renee,``I trust your wishes will not prosper, and that Providence will only permit petty offenders, poor debtors, and miserable cheats to fall into M. de Villefort's hands, then I shall be contented.''
In those disorderly times, every great landlord was a sort of petty prince.
The petty annoyances of injustice or unkindness are looked on by each with the same magnanimity.
All, petty things; all things that are soon altered, soon perished.
It is not about ordinary petty matters, believe it, that all our strife and contention is, but whether, with the vulgar, we should be mad, or by the help of philosophy wise and sober, said he.
It would be a nice business indeed if all these illustrious cities were to take huff and revenge themselves and go about perpetually making trombones of their swords in every petty quarrel!
But between ourselves, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a petty way as ever came before me.
I began to recognize our own petty and familiar architecture, the thousands hand ran back to the starting-point, the night and day flapped slower and slower.
Give me back my wife, give me back my family, substitute Micawber for the petty wretch who walks about in the boots at present on my feet, and call upon me to swallow a sword tomorrow, and I'll do it.
And here let me take notice of one very heinous abuse, not to say petty felony, which is practised in most of the great families about town, which is, when the tradesman gives the house-keeper or other commanding servant a penny or twopence in the shilling, or so much in the pound, for everything they send in, and which, from thence, is called poundage.
More Vocab Words
::: epigram - witty thought or saying, usually short::: foist - insert improperly; impose upon another by coercion; palm off; pass off as genuine or worthy; CF. fist
::: lewd - lustful
::: forensic - suitable to debate or courts of law; of or used in legal proceedings and the tracking of criminals; Ex. forensic science/medicine
::: hygiene - science and practice of the promotion and preservation of health; ADJ. hygienic: showing careful attention to cleanness (to prevent disease); Ex. hygienic condition
::: petrify - turn to stone; cause to become stonelike; stun or paralyze
::: consternation - great shock; dismay
::: metaphysical - pertaining to speculative philosophy; of metaphysics; N. metaphysics: branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality
::: ensue - follow (as a result)
::: brazen - insolent; without shame; bold; Ex. brazen lie; V: face with bold self-assurance or with unshamed confidence
