footling

[ foot-ling ]

adjectiveInformal.
  1. foolish; silly: ridiculous, footling remarks.

  2. trifling or useless.

Origin of footling

1
First recorded in 1895–1900; footle + -ing2

Words Nearby footling

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use footling in a sentence

  • Ive repeated to myself over and over again exactly what I want to say to you, and now all Id prepared seems rather footling.

    The Circle | W. Somerset Maugham
  • If you ask me, I should call it a simply footling show—but you were long enough over it.

  • Seems as if everything were too small and footling to matter.

    Notwithstanding | Mary Cholmondeley
  • Still jumping, I said to myself: 'What in the name of glory are those asses right and left footling about?

  • Only a couple of days ago I was compelled to take him off a case because his handling of it was so footling.

    Right Ho, Jeeves | P. G. Wodehouse

British Dictionary definitions for footling

footling

/ (ˈfuːtlɪŋ) /


adjective
  1. informal silly, trivial, or petty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012