cavil

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Conferred on his Highness of Cumberland, [47] "Oh! were I prone to cavil -- or were I not the Devil,

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To find fault unnecessarily; raise trivial objections. See Synonyms at quibble.
  2. transitive verb To quibble about; detect petty flaws in.
  3. noun A carping or trivial objection.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • According to Glover, a police officer may properly disarm any civilian at any time, and the civilian's duty is to surrender his gun -- willingly, readily, cheerfully, without cavil or question. —  Pro Libertate
  • Some elude the force of these expressions with a foolish cavil-that since Pharaoh himself is elsewhere said to have hardened his own heart, his own will is stated as the cause of his obduracy; as though these two things were at all incompatible with each other, that man should be actuated by God, and yet at the same time be active himself. —  Possessing the Treasure
  • "My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to] .... the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God." —  Latest Articles
  • (Just one Chekhovian cavil: If you're going to put a tire swing onstage, shouldn't someone get to use it?) —  TheaterMania.com
  • One cavil: there was never a moment watching Meryl Streep when I could stop thinking "This is Meryl Streep playing this working class or very lower middle class nun character". —  The Right Coast
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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cavil:   Cavil
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French caviller, from Old French, from Latin cavillārī, to jeer, from cavilla, a jeering.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from cavil, v. Cf. Latin cavilla, n.
 

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/ˈkævɪl/
by American Heritage

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