2. numb, benumb, deaden, obtund, hebetate, dull, blunt; drug, anesthetize, stun, paralyze; chill, freeze.
3. scare, terrify, frighten, fright, horrify, strike terror into, make fearful, scare out of one's wits; stupefy, paralyze, benumb, numb, incapacitate, insensitize; stun, stagger, take aback, astound, astonish, amaze, dumfound; startle, surprise, disconcert, take unawares, alarm; shock, electrify, daze, Inf. take one's breath away.
petrol, n. British, gasoline, gas, fuel, diesel fuel, Fr. Canadian, gaz.
petroleum, n. rock oil, fossil oil, crude oil, Archaic. petrol.
petticoat, n. 1. half-slip, slip, shift, underskirt, skirt, hoop skirt, farthingale, crinoline; undergarment, underwear, lingerie.
2. Informal, woman, lady, female, young lady, girl, mademoiselle, miss, young woman, Inf. filly, SI. chick.
-adj. 3. feminine, female, delicate, gentle, tender,
pettifog, v. 1. quibble, cavil, Inf. nitpick, be
labor a point, split hairs, chop logic, trifle, beg the question; bicker, bandy words, moot, sift, Inf. kick around, SI. hash over; wrangle, altercate, jangle, quarrel, squabble, haggle, SI. hassle, Scot. argle-bargle.
2. chicane, hoodwink, trick, delude, deceive, fool, bamboozle, overreach; All Inf. jive, fast-talk, flam, hype, buffalo, bulldoze; All SI. con, snow, suck or sucker in, murphy.
pettifogger, n. dishonest lawyer, SI. mouthpiece,
ambulance chaser, shyster, Brit. SI. greenbag; Inf. nit-picker, quibbler.
pettifoggery, n. jobbery, underhand practice or
dealing, corruption, dishonesty, falseness, humbug-gery, artifice, subterfuge; bamboozling, cheating, cozenage, swindling, fleecing; fraud, fraudulency, deceit, deception, chicane, duplicity, guile, double-dealing, SI. monkey-business, SI. dipsy-doodle; trickery, gulling, knavery, rascality, hoodwinking, duping, hoaxing, befooling; wiles, sophistry, Inf. nitpicking, artfulness, craftiness, treachery,
pettifogging, adj. 1. trifling, niggling, frivolous, Inf. nitpicking, paltry, insubstantial, insignificant; circumlocutory, fencing, equivocating, sophistical, sophistic, casuistic, casuistical; hairsplitting, caviling, captious; finespun, over-refined, subtle.
2. deceptive, misleading, tricky, slippery; prevaricating, sneaking, sneaky, crafty, deceitful, questionable, dubious; shifty, shifting, evasive, evading, elusive.
3. dishonorable, on the take, contemptible, immoral, unlawful, illegal, criminal; untrustworthy, faithless, false-hearted, treacherous, perfidious; corrupt, corruptible, venal, knavish, roguish, recreant; unscrupulous, unprincipled, intriguing, conniving, unconscionable, conscienceless.
pettish, adj. 1. peevish, ill-humored, touchy, testy, thin-skinned, waspish, petulant; cross, irascible, choleric, ill-tempered, splenetic; crabby, crabbed, cranky, grouchy, grumpy, cantankerous, crotchety, crusty; irritable, out of sorts, snappish, snappy, huffish, huffy, curt, short, impatient; piqued, in a pique, in a fume, Archaic, in a pucker, Inf. in a stew.
2. moody, sulky, dour, gloomy, dyspeptic, sullen, morose; grumpy, moping, mopish, mopey; injured, wounded, sore, offended, indignant; angry, in high dudgeon, worked up.
3. captious, quarrelsome, fractious; complaining, querulous, caviling, carping; antagonistic, inimical, ill-willed, hostile; argumentative, short-tempered, quarrelsome, disputatious; contrary, perverse, Scot. thrawn; unaccommodating, unkindly, unamiable, un-