niggling

5 definitions found

niggling - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Niggling \Nig"gling\, a.
     1. petty, trivial, or inconsequential.
        [PJC]
  
     2. Excessively demanding of time or attention; as, niggling
        little details.
        [PJC]

  niggling \nig"gling\, n.
     Finicky or pottering work; specif. (Fine Arts), Minute and
     very careful workmanship in drawing, painting, or the like,
     esp. when bestowed on unimportant detail.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

  Niggle \Nig"gle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Niggled; p. pr. & vb. n.
     Niggling.] [Dim. of Prov. E. nig to clip money; cf. also
     Prov. E. nig a small piece.]
     To trifle with; to deceive; to mock. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl.
     [1913 Webster]

niggling - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  niggling
      adj 1: (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling
             sum of money"; "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" [syn: fiddling, footling, lilliputian,
             little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty,
             picayune, trivial]

niggling - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  115 Moby Thesaurus words for "niggling":
     Mickey Mouse, adverse criticism, advertent, agog, alert, all ears,
     all eyes, animadversion, annoying, aspersion, assiduous, attentive,
     aware, bad notices, bad press, captious, captiousness, careful,
     carping, cavil, caviling, censoriousness, concentrated, conscious,
     critical, criticism, cynical, diligent, earnest, exception,
     faultfinding, finical, finicking, finicky, flak, frivolous, fussy,
     hairsplitting, heedful, hit, home thrust, hostile criticism,
     hypercritical, hypercriticalness, hypercriticism, imputation,
     inconsequential, insignificant, intense, intent, intentive,
     irksome, irritating, jerkwater, knock, measly, meticulous, mindful,
     nagging, nice, niggle, nit, nit-picking, nugatory, obloquy,
     observant, observing, on the ball, on the job, one-horse,
     open-eared, open-eyed, openmouthed, overcritical, overcriticalness,
     paltry, peanut, pestering, pettifogging, petty, picayune,
     picayunish, piddling, piffling, poky, priggishness, punk, puny,
     quibble, quibbling, rap, reflection, regardful, reproachfulness,
     slam, small-beer, small-time, stricture, swipe, taking exception,
     tinhorn, trichoschistic, trichoschistism, trifling, trivial,
     troublesome, two-bit, two-by-four, ultracritical, unimportant,
     vexatious, vexing, watchful, worrisome, worrying