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  1. quibble love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To evade the truth or importance of an issue by raising trivial distinctions and objections.
  2. v. To find fault or criticize for petty reasons; cavil.
  3. n. A petty distinction or an irrelevant objection.
  4. n. Archaic A pun.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To trifle in argument or discourse; evade the point in question, or the plain truth, by artifice, play upon words, or any conceit; prevaricate.
  2. To pun.
  3. n. A start or turn from the point in question, or from plain truth; an evasion; a prevarication.
  4. n. A pun; a trivial conceit.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A trivial or minor complaint, objection or argument.
  2. v. intransitive To complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; an evasion; a cavil.
  2. n. A pun; a low conceit.
  3. v. To evade the point in question by artifice, play upon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate.
  4. v. To pun; to practice punning.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections
  2. v. argue over petty things
  3. n. an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections

Etymologies

  1. Probably diminutive of obsolete quib, equivocation, perhaps from Latin quibus, dative and ablative pl. of quī, who, what (from its frequent use in legal documents); see kwo- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • yarb ...the clerk drove his old-time quibble slowly and noisily down the street...

    - P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. Mar 24, 2012

  • jwjarvis denounced the willingness of members to quibble about fees and diagnosis Sep 14, 2010

  • PossibleUnderscore Very useful if you're where I come from. Jul 17, 2009

  • ofravens Plath citations: see note at ruck. Apr 14, 2008

  • sonofgroucho Isn't quibble a lovely little word? Aug 27, 2007

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‘quibble’ has been looked up 4573 times, loved by 18 people, added to 114 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 20.