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• v  be about
• v  act foolishly, as by talking nonsense
• s  (informal) small and of little importance
  a footling gesture

• These are not piddling concerns, but they are put to the footling purpose of endless windbaggery.
• A well-nigh endless series of footling governments has done little to help her out of it.
• Four years ago New York's Red-hunting Representative Fish demonstrated how a little material could be piled into a mountain of headlines when he headed a footling House inquiry .

• loiter
• lounge
• footle
• lollygag
• loaf
• lallygag
• hang around
• mess about
• tarry
• linger
• lurk
• mill about
• mill around
• fiddling
• lilliputian
• little
• niggling
• piddling
• piffling
• petty
• picayune
• trivial

Quotes

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• John Peel in guardian.co.uk
  ) John wrote in Sounds magazine: "Frankly, I listen to music with no concern whatever for the race, colour, religion, preference in breakfast foods, height, shoe size or whatever-you-like of the music makers. The only footling prejudice I do permit...