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subordinate, or inferior, division into parts; a subdivision. [R.] Many subdichatomies of petty schisms. Milton.

One who summons; one who cites by authority; specifically, a petty officer formerly employed to summon persons to appear in court; an apparitor.

To vex with importunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb, or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery; to plague. Cowper. He . . . suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations. Macaulay.

nor of the fourth part of a province; hence, any subordinate or dependent prince; also, a petty king or sovereign.

A petty officer among lascars, or native East Indian sailors; a boatswain's mate; a cockswain. [India] Malcom.

A small state, consisting of a few cities or towns; a petty country governed by a toparch; as, Judea was formerly divided into ten toparchies. Fuller.

To tease; to vex; to harass; as, to be tormented with importunities, or with petty annoyances. [Colloq.]

Of little worth or importance; inconsiderable; trifling; petty; paltry; as, a trivial subject or affair. The trivial round, the common task. Keble.

A petty fellow; an inferior agent; an underling. This was going to the fountain head at once, not applying to the understrappers. Goldsmith.

Inferior or subordinate work; petty business. Addison.

The act of burning or searing. [R.] Sir W. Petty.

Proud of petty things, or of trifling attainments; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason; conceited; puffed up; inflated. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren James ii. 20 (Rev. Ver.). The minstrels played on every side, Vain of their art. Dryden.…

In the United States navy, a first-class petty officer in charge in a fireroom. He "tends" water to the boilers, sees that fires are properly cleaned and stoked, etc. There is also a rating of chief water tender, who is a chief petty officer.

A petty or inferior Whig; -- used in contempt. Spectator.

Same as Whinstone. [Prov. Eng.] Moor whin or Petty whin (Bot.), a low prickly shrub (Genista Anglica) common in Western Europe. -- Whin bruiser, a machine for cutting and bruising whin, or furze, to feed cattle on. -- Whin Sparrow (Zoöl.), the hedge sparrow. [Prov. Eng.] -- Whin Thrush (Zoöl.), the redwing. [Prov. En…

A mediæval instrument for punishing petty offenders, being a kind of wooden cage turning on a pivot, in which the offender was whirled round with great velocity.

European warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus); -- called also bee bird, haybird, golden wren, pettychaps, sweet William, Tom Thumb, and willow wren.