picayune (redirected from picayunes)

pic·a·yune  (pk-yn)

adj.

1. Of little value or importance; paltry. See Synonyms at trivial.

2. Petty; mean.

n.

1. A Spanish-American half-real piece formerly used in parts of the southern United States.

2. A five-cent piece.

3. Something of very little value; a trifle: not worth a picayune.

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[Louisiana French picaillon, small coin, from French, from Provençal picaioun, from picaio, money, perhaps from Old Provençal piquar, to jingle, clink, from Vulgar Latin *piccre, to pierce; see pique.]

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pica·yunish adj.

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picayune [pick-a-yoon] US & Canad informal

Adjective

1. of small value or importance

2. mean or petty

Noun

1. any coin of little value, such as a five-cent piece

2. an unimportant person or thing [French picaillon coin from Piedmont]

Thesaurus

Adj.

1.

picayune - (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" fiddling, footling, niggling, piddling, piffling, trivial, petty, lilliputian, little 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"