pettifoggery

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

pettifoggery
    n 1: a quarrel about petty points [syn: {bicker}, {bickering},
         {spat}, {tiff}, {squabble}, {pettifoggery}, {fuss}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Pettifoggery \Pet"ti*fog`ger*y\, n.; pl. {pettifoggeries}.
   The practice or arts of a pettifogger; disreputable tricks;
   quibbles; chicanery.
   [1913 Webster]

         Quirks of law, and pettifoggeries.       --Barrow.
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

41 Moby Thesaurus words for "pettifoggery":
      artifice, bickering, boggling, captiousness, caviling, chicane,
      chicanery, collusion, connivance, connivery, conspiracy, covin,
      dodgery, dodging, equivocation, evasion, fencing, foul play,
      hairsplitting, hedging, logic-chopping, machination, nit-picking,
      paltering, parrying, pettifogging, prevarication, pussyfooting,
      quibbling, sharp practice, shifting, shuffling, sidestepping,
      skulduggery, sleight, subterfuge, supercherie, tergiversation,
      trichoschistism, trickery, underhand dealing