Picayune (Adjective)
Meaning
(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".
Classification
All adjective clusters.
Usages
Examples
- She's been quibbling over picayune details for hours, but the overall project is shaping up well.
- People are getting worked up over a picayune issue that doesn't really affect anyone's life in a significant way.
- The amount of money he's complaining about is picayune, it's hardly worth arguing over.
- Compared to the real problems in the world, our concerns about the quality of the coffee are rather picayune.
- After dealing with major scandals in the past, this recent revelation seems like a picayune issue.