Definition of "footling" [foot•ling]

• Informal Lacking importance or significance; trifling: a footling gesture. (adjective)
• Informal Stupid; inept. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "JUNO [huffily] I don't know what you call footling --"
• "I would rather we attempt big, serious change and fail, than fiddlearound with footling, meaningless promises, limping through office andclinging to power for the sake of it."
• "While pacifying those who worry about liberty with a footling commission, composed largely of lawyers from left and right, who cancel each other out, Clarke proposes a vast extension of secrecy in the civil courts and inquests, which will suppress evidence of corruption and negligence in high places, as well as reduce access to justice and the public's right to know."