niggle
A minor complaint or problemA minor complaint or problem.
» I'm fed up with your constant niggling, Mary.
maaster · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA minor complaint or problem.
(obsolete)Small, cramped handwriting.
Examples
3 sentencesI'm fed up with your constant niggling, Mary.
Your essay was not bad but I have a few minor niggles.
Mary would always niggle Tom over his lack of punctuation in text messages.
Origin
First attested in 1599. Origin uncertain, but likely borrowed from dialectal Norwegian nigFirst attested in 1599. Origin uncertain, but likely borrowed from dialectal Norwegian nigla (“to be stingy, to busy oneself with trifles”), ultimately from Old Norse hnøggr (“stingy; miserly”), related to Old English hnēaw (“stingy; niggardly”). More at niggard.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.