footling


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foo·tling

 (fo͞ot′lĭng)
adj. Informal
1. Lacking importance or significance; trifling: a footling gesture.
2. Stupid; inept.

[Present participle of footle.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

footling

(ˈfuːtlɪŋ)
adj
informal silly, trivial, or petty
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

foot•ling

(ˈfʊt lɪŋ)

adj. Informal.
1. foolish; silly: a footling amateur.
2. trifling; trivial: a footling remark.
[1895–1900; footle + -ing2]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
footle, footling - To footle is to talk or act foolishly, from the old verb meaning "bungle"; as an adjective, footle (or footling) refers to something trifling or silly.
See also related terms for silly.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.footling - (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"
colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech
unimportant - not important; "a relatively unimportant feature of the system"; "the question seems unimportant"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

footling

[ˈfuːtlɪŋ] ADJtrivial, insignificante
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

footling

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

footling

[ˈfʊtlɪŋ] adjstupido/a, insignificante
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
I ought to tell you that since we left England he has taken up painting footling little pictures, and has got the artistic temperament badly.
Others took aim at Pakistan's policy makers for turning the country into a footling in the hands of the US to accomplish its security needs.
Not to all of us, all the time (on other days I'm just as happy footling about in a park with my grandson).
Even the pessimists would surely have to concede that any disruption to a trading arrangements would be footling compared to the destruction to our economy should we face a Corbyn Government.
When I was born, the delivery doctor exclaimed to my parents, "You have a dancer on your hands!" 1 had been a footling breech baby and entertained myself by jumping in utero, until I jumped so hard that I broke my mom's water and was delivered as a C-section.
On examination, footling breech was noticed," Mr Amunga said.A footling breech is when one or both of the baby's feet are born first, instead of the pelvis.
Might is right, democracy and human rights are for the birds, raw power is more exciting than the footling checks and balances of the US Constitution, and national interest -- defined in the most crude and short-sighted terms -- must trump every consideration of right and wrong, or the long-term sustainability of the global community in which we live.
The second twin shifted from a cephalic presentation to a double footling breech presentation and his FHR reflected severe bradycardia.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) confirmed the death of a newborn baby in Johor Baru on February 4 was due to shortness of breath (asphyxia) after the baby's head was stuck in the mother's perineum during a footling breech delivery at home.
She underwent emergency cesarean section in view of footling presentation and a female baby weighing 1.9 kg was delivered on December 2[2.sup.nd], 2016.
The nurses tried in vain to deliver what was a footling breech infant, realising after several attempts that it had died.