Niggling

Definition: Niggling

Niggling

Adjective

1. (informal terms) 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"; "Mickey Mouse regulations"; "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".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "niggling" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1888. (references)

Slang in 1811

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Niggling

Unimportance

Trifling, trivial; slight, slender, light, flimsy, frothy, idle; puerile; (foolish); airy, shallow; weak; powerless; frivolous, petty, niggling; piddling, peddling; fribble, inane, ridiculous, farcical; finical, finikin; fiddle-faddle, fingle-fangle, namby-pamby, wishy-washy, milk and water.

Crosswords: Niggling

Albanian

i vazhdueshëm (ceaseless, chronic, constant, continual, continued, continuous, endless, frequent, incessant, lingering, non-stop, perennial, permanent, perpetual, persistent, regular, running, steady, unbroken, uninterrupted), i pashqiteshëm, i papërfillshëm (hole-in-the-wall, inconsiderable, naught, negligible, pettifogging, petty, potty, trifling). (various references)

Arabic 

‏حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), ‏تافه (banal, commonplace, contemptible, crummy, fade, fiddling, flat, foolish, footling, fractional, frivolous, frothy, good for nothing, inane, inconsiderable, insignificant, junk, light, lilliputian, little, lowbrow, measly, minute, naught, negligible, nonsensical, nugatory, null, paltry, pedestrian, petty, piddling, pimping, piteous, pitiable, platitudinous, pointless, puny, ridiculous, run of the mill, silly, slight, slim, small time, smelly, stupid, trifle, trifling, trite, trivial, trumpery, two a penny, two bit, twopenny-halfpenny, unimportant, unsavory, unsavoury, unworthy, vain, valueless, vapid, vile, worthless), ‏صغير (baby, diminutive, infinitesimal, little, lower case, minuscule, minute, petty, remote, short, small, teeny, tiny, tiny bit, wee, young), ‏شغب (disorder, disturbance, riot, rout, rowdyism, tumult, turbulence). (various references)

Bulgarian 

ситен (fine, small), тънък (acute, cobwebby, fine, gauzy, hairsplitting, high pitched, jimp, lightweight, liny, neat, nice, reedy, sheer, shrewd, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, subtle, subulate, tenuous, thin, threadlike, thready, willowy), нечетлив (crabbed, cramped, illegible, indecipherable, unreadable), незначителен (cheap, dinky, fiddling, fractional, frivolous, immaterial, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, inessential, inglorious, insignificant, least, little, mean, minor, minute, negligible, nominal, noteless, nugatory, obscure, one horse, outside, paltry, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, pygmy, rabbity, scrubby, slight, small, small time, subfusc, tenuous, third class, tiddly, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, unconsidered, unimportant), изискващ много внимание, дребнав (finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, little, mean, mouldy, niminy-piminy, pernickety, pettifogging, petty, small, small minded, trivial), дребен (dinky, dwarf, finical, finicking, finicky, insignificant, little, minor, paltry, peddling, petty, picayune, piddling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, puny, pygmy, rabbity, sawed-off, shabby, short, small, small time, small-scale, trifling, trivial, undersized, unimportant, venial). (various references)

Czech

malicherný (fussy, narrow minded, parish pump, peddling, pettifogging, piddling, punctilious, sleeveless, small, small minded), bezvýznamný (inappreciable, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, meaningless, minor, negligible, null, pointless, poor, small time, trifling), úzkoprsý (hidebound, illiberal, insular, narrow, narrow minded). (various references)

French

tatillon (nit-picker), mesquin, insignifiant, chicanerie. (various references)

German

trödelnd (dallying, dawdling, loitering). (various references)

Greek 

άτολμοσ (diffident, sheepish, shy, timid), ασήμαντοσ (fiddling, immaterial, inconsequential, insignificant, minor, negligible, nobody, nonessential, nugatory, paltry, piddling, potty, purportless, slight, trifling, trivial, unessential, unimportant). (various references)

Hebrew 

קט� ו� יות (meanness, pettiness, triviality), קט� ו� י (minute, petty, small, small minded, tiny, trivial). (various references)

Hungarian

szőrszálhasogatás (casuistry, fault-finding), részletesen kidolgozott, részletekben elvesző, pepecselés (fiddling about), okvetetlenkedés (chicanery), kicsinyeskedő (fussy, punctilious, to be interfering), jelentéktelen (baubling, dinkey, dinky, exiguous, fiddle-faddle, footling, frivolous, futile, inappreciable, inconsiderable, insignificant, irrelevant, jerkwater, light, minor, minor details, negligible, nugatory, null, obscure, of no great importance, of no moment, paltry, petty, piddling, scrubby, slight, small time, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, unimportant, venial), bíbelődés, aprólékosság (fussiness, meticulosity, meticulousness, preciseness), aprólékoskodó (meticulous, niggly, pernickety, punctilious), aprólékosan kidolgozott, akadékoskodó (captious, martinetish, martinettish, nagging, pedantic, to be interfering), akadékoskodás (angularity, demur). (various references)

Italian

pignolo (fastidious person, finicking, finicky, niggler, pedant, pedantic), pedante (bookish, niggler, pedant, pedantic, prig, schoolmarmish, stickler), molesto (annoying, troublesome, worrying), minuzioso (carefully, detailed, exact, exactly, meticulous, minute, narrow, nice, precise, precisely, searching, subtile, subtle, thorough), insignificante (inexpressive, insignificant, irrelevant, meaningless, minor, negligible, petty, picayune, piddling, potty, slight, trifling, trivial). (various references)

Manx

myn- (diminutive, elaborate, exhaustive, filings, lesser, little, minute, petty, prefix diminutive, trifling). (various references)

Pig Latin

igglingnay.(various references)

Portuguese

miudinho (choosey, choosy, punctilious, scaly, squeamish), minucioso (curious, hairsplitting, minute, narrow, particular, pernickety, rigorous, scrupulous, searching, thorough), mesquinho (cheeseparing, close-fisted, costive, despicable, illiberal, little, logy, mangy, mean, mingy, miserly, peddling, penurious, pimping, pitiable, scaly, scrubby, scurvy, small, sordid, stingy, unhandsome). (various references)

Romanian

neplãcut (acrid, annoying, bad, beastly, bothersome, brackish, dark, disagreeable, dreadful, forbidding, hard, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, obnoxiously, offensive, offensively, provoking, snuffy, sorry, ugly, unlucky, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome), supãrãtor (annoying, bad, bothersome, disappointing, dreadful, grating, hurtful, importunate, inconvenient, inopportune, intrusively, invidious, irksome, irritating, irritatingly, jumpy, mischief-makering, obtrusively, painful, provoking, provokingly, tedious, troublesome, unfortunate, unlucky, unwelcome, vexatious, vexing), migãlos (careful, finical, painstaking, painstakingly, precise, scrupulous, scrupulously). (various references)

Russian 

мелочный (hairsplitting, little, meticulous, mingy, peddling, penny-wise, petty, picayune, small minded, small-minded). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

nacifrano delo. (various references)

Spanish

nimio (fussy), quejas (nagging, wailing), persistente (hardy, lingering, long-lived, nagging, persistent), murmurios, dudas, de miras estrechas (hidebound, limited, narrow minded, small minded, stuffy). (various references)

Swedish

knåpgöra. (various references)

Thai

ซึ่งไม่สำคัญ (negligible, nickel-and-dime, niggly, nominal). (various references)

Turkish

titiz (careful, choosy, cleanly, critical, dainty, demanding, difficult, exact, exacting, exigent, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, hypercritical, jealous, jealous of, meticulous, niminy-piminy, particular, peevish, pernickety, picky, rigorous, scrupulous, squeamish, touchy), detaycı (fussy, hypercritical), aşırı titizlenme, üzerinde durma. (various references)

Ukrainian

копіткий (painstaking), нерозбірливий (crabbed, cramped, illegible, indecipherable, obscure, unreadable), незначний (bare, exiguous, imponderable, inconsiderable, inessential, insignificant, little, minor, minute, negligible, nugacious, off, one horse, outside, petty, poor, potty, puny, pygmy, slender, slight, small, trivial), дріб'язковий (cheeseparing, fribble, mean-spirited, near, nugacious, nugatory, penny-wise, pettifogging, piddling, toy, trifling), дрібний (bantam, fractional, hair splitting, little, minute, negligible, picayune, piddling, potty, sectarian, small, small minded, tin-pot). (various references)

Vietnamese 

vụn vặt bé nhỏ, tỉ mẩn, lí nhí, chật hẹp khó đọc. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "niggling": nigglingly, nigglings. (additional references)

Words ending with "niggling": sniggling. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Niggling" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: naggling, nagling, nigging. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: lignin, lining.

-3 letters: linin.

-4 letters: ling, linn.

-5 letters: gig, gin, inn, lin, nil.

+1 letter: nigglings, sniggling.

+2 letters: nigglingly.

+3 letters: gunslinging.

+4 letters: gunslingings.

+5 letters: agglutinating, antismuggling.