Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic the act of finding exceedingly small differences which are probably neither important nor noticeable to most people.
Examples
“I would caution people about the hair-splitting Kurtz is doing here.”
“Yet any such hair-splitting would do irreparable damage to the ECB's credibility.”
The Wall Street Journal: ECB's Default Position on Breaking a Tie
“Romney is now hair-splitting about the difference between criminal law and "the law that applies to those fighting America".”
The Guardian: GOP presidential debate in Washington – as it happened
“Please be charitable now, I am not acquainted with canon law, but it seems clear to me that beyond legalistic hair-splitting the practical effect of this bill would be to sever the bishops authority over their parishes, harm discipline and hamper the Church's ability to speak with one voice.”
“Yet another senior Pakistani government official disputed that, saying that Davis clearly qualified for immunity and that statements otherwise amounted to "hair-splitting.”
The Washington Post: Stakes rise, aid cuts mulled in case of American accused of killing Pakistanis
“He avoids jargon and professorial hair-splitting, focusing instead on the details of work and lives.”
“At the start I referred to The Passenger as a masterwork rather than masterpiece, a hair-splitting distinction intended to indicate its worth, while also implying some shortcomings.”
“Within more mathematical economics the last major really exciting ideas probably happened in the 1980s with the development of new insights in information constrained economies, but most work in those fields since then has been derivative hair-splitting, building upon the work of early pioneers.”
Memetic Suicide, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I might add that semantics are important to writers and are worth hair-splitting.”
“Frightened by the empty store shelves, Russians gravitated toward radical economic reform, leaving Gorbachev, with his ideological hair-splitting, far behind.”
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