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Definition of Niggling
1. Adjective. (informal) small and of little importance. "Giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"
Language type: Colloquialism
Similar to: Unimportant
Derivative terms: Littleness, Pettiness, Trivia, Triviality, Trivialize
Definition of Niggling
1. n. Finicky or pottering work;
Definition of Niggling
1. Verb. (present participle of niggle) ¹
2. Adjective. petty ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Niggling
1. petty or meticulous work [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Niggling
| niggies niggish niggle niggled niggler nigglers niggles nigglier niggliest niggliite | niggling (current term) nigglingly nigglings niggly nigh nigh(a) nighed nighen nigher nighest | nighing nighly nighness nighnesses |
Literary usage of Niggling
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and by John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1902)
"Also niggling, subs. = Copulation.— BE (c. 1696) ; GROSE (1785). 1567. HARMAN,
Caveat (1814), p ... And he has kept on niggling and niggling away at it—why? ..."
2. The Complete Works by John Ruskin (1894)
"No word has been more harmfully misused than that ugly one of " niggling. ...
So long as the work is thoughtfully directed, there is no niggling. ..."
3. Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases by Anne Elizabeth Baker (1854)
"BNC niggling. Small, curtailed, diminutive; a suppressed laugh is " a little
niggling laugh;" a pen, that does not move freely would be called a " niggling ..."
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