PETIT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Petit

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/pˈɛti/ Listen

adjective

Petit adj. Small; little; insignificant; mean; Same as Petty. (Obs., except in legal language.) "By what small, petit hints does the mind catch hold of and recover a vanishing notion."

Petit constable, an inferior civil officer, subordinate to the high constable.

Petit jury, a jury of twelve men, impaneled to try causes at the bar of a court; so called in distinction from the grand jury.

Petit larceny, the stealing of goods of, or under, a certain specified small value; opposed to grand larceny. The distinction is abolished in England.

Petit maître. A fop; a coxcomb; a ladies' man.

Petit serjeanty (Eng. Law), the tenure of lands of the crown, by the service of rendering annually some implement of war, as a bow, an arrow, a sword, a flag, etc.

Petit treason, formerly, in England, the crime of killing a person to whom the offender owed duty or subjection, as one's husband, master, mistress, etc. The crime is now not distinguished from murder.

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Etymology of 'Petit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Petit" Quotes from Famous Books

... Paris, gives a curious account of the manner in which they were fed from the Emperor's table: "La viande consistait en un morceau de ctes sur lequelles il n'y avait point un demi-pouce d'paisseur d'une chair maigre, en un petit os de l'paule ou il n'y avait presque pas de chair, et en quatre ou cinq autres ossemens fournis par le dos ou par les pattes d'un mouton, et qui semblaient avoir t dja rongs. Tout ce dgotant ensemble ...

— Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a Subsequent Journey thr • John Barrow

... the Rose' within same border (sig. 2A 1). After the colophon appears a Latin epitaph on Chaucer by Stephanus Surigonus. Copies of this edition are also found bearing in the colophon the names of 'Wyllyam Bonham', 'Thomas Petit', and 'Robart Toye.' They are all alike undated. Mr Hazlitt places it before the edition of 1542, thus making it the second collected edition, and suggests the date 1538; Prof. Skeat and the BM catalogue place it after, making it the third, which seems more likely, the former dating it ...

— Catalogue of the Books Presented by Edward Capell to the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge • W. W. Greg

... true, applied to history his genius for pure romance; nothing like the anecdotes so well told by the Knight of La Tour Landry for the instruction of his daughters; nothing that at all approaches "Petit Jehan de Saintre" or the "Cent nouvelles" in the fifteenth century. To find English prose tales of the Middle Ages we should be forced to look through the religious manuscripts where they figure under the ...

— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand

... gave him a stunning dinner. He was close as wax, at first—that might be the salt fish; but after the rognons 'a la brochette, and a bottle of champagne, he let out. I remember one thing he said: Monsieur, ce que fait la fortune de la banque ce n'est pas le petit avantage qu'elle tire du refait—quoique cela y est pour quelquechose—c'est la te'me'rite' de ceux qui perdent, et la timidite' de ceux ...

— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade

... compliment of being missed. I have tried to make amends by ordering a 'petit souper' for three, for I was sure your cousin would join us. It will be brought to one of yonder stalls, where, while we enjoy it, we can ...

— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

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