Petty has 7 different meanings across 3 categories:
Noun · Adjective · Proper Noun
larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale)
"The thief was charged with petty after stealing a wallet containing only a few dollars from the convenience store."
A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
"The teacher scolded the petty child for spilling ink on his desk during recess."
In plain English: A petty person is someone who cares too much about small, unimportant things instead of focusing on what really matters.
"She had no time for his petty complaints about minor details."
inferior in rank or status
"the junior faculty"
"a lowly corporal"
"petty officialdom"
"a subordinate functionary"
(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"
contemptibly narrow in outlook
"petty little comments"
"disgusted with their small-minded pettiness"
Little, small, secondary in rank or importance.
"The petty thief was too insignificant to be noticed by the police chief."
In plain English: Something petty is small, unimportant, and not worth worrying about.
"He refuses to let his enemies get away with even petty insults."
Usage: Use petty to describe something trivially unimportant rather than physically small, as it specifically implies a lack of significance that often causes annoyance. Avoid confusing this adjective with the archaic noun meaning for a young boy, which is rarely encountered in modern speech.
A surname.
"The Petty family has lived in that village for three generations."
The word petty comes from Old French petit, which originally meant "young" or "little." While it once had a possible connection to Celtic languages, scholars now believe its roots are imitative rather than borrowed from another language family.