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Niggling   Listen
Niggling

adjective
1.
(informal) small and of little importance.  Synonyms: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, trivial.  "A footling gesture" , "Our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war" , "A little (or small) matter" , "A dispute over niggling details" , "Limited to petty enterprises" , "Piffling efforts" , "Giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"


Niggle

verb
(past & past part. niggled; pres. part. niggling)
1.
Worry unnecessarily or excessively.  Synonyms: fret, fuss.
2.
Argue over petty things.  Synonyms: bicker, brabble, pettifog, quibble, squabble.



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"Niggling" Quotes from Famous Books



... to the second great danger to our modern civilisation, and that is War. We have over-developed war. While we have left our peace organisation to the niggling, slow, self-seeking methods of private enterprise; while we have left the breeding of our peoples to chance, their minds to the halfpenny press and their wealth to the drug manufacturer, we have pushed forward ...
— An Englishman Looks at the World • H. G. Wells
... of going on as he should, and widening his purse to the number of the mouths, was niggling at them always for offense or excuse, to take away what little he allowed them. The Captain had his pay, which would go in one hand, and the lady had a little money of her own; but still it was cruel for brought-up people to have nothing better to go on with. Not that the old lord was a ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore
... Look at the curls and curves whereby this people conventionally signify wave or cloud. All these curls have an attitude which is like that of a figure slightly malformed, and not like that of a human body that is perfect, dominant, and if bent, bent at no lowly or niggling labour. Why these curves should be so charming it would be hard to say; they have an exquisite prankishness of variety, the place where the upward or downward scrolls curl off from the main wave is delicately unexpected ...
— The Colour of Life • Alice Meynell


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