cavil
to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually followed by at or about): He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.
to oppose by inconsequential, frivolous, or sham objections: to cavil each item of a proposed agenda.
a trivial and annoying objection.
the raising of such objections.
Origin of cavil
1Other words for cavil
Other words from cavil
- cav·il·er; especially British, cav·il·ler, noun
- cav·il·ing·ly; especially British, cav·il·ling·ly, adverb
- outcavil, verb (used with object), out·cav·iled, out·cav·il·ing or (especially British) out·cav·illed, out·cav·il·ling.
- un·cav·il·ing, adjective
- un·cav·il·ling, adjective
Words Nearby cavil
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cavil in a sentence
None of these cavils really matter, given that the revivified Sex and the City juggernaut is upon us.
Candace Bushnell Asks, ‘Is There Still Sex in the City?’ The Answer: Get Me a Cosmo, Fast. | Tim Teeman | December 8, 2021 | The Daily BeastIt would be foolish to cavil about living in any city, with its many pleasures and diversions, he says.
There is no hesitation, cavil, or debate in the acceptance of it as a duty.
The Contemporary Review, January 1883 | VariousI should n't want to have it go abroad that we had not acted formally, if there was any one disposed to cavil.
Eli | Heman White ChaplinOf this he complains, with some cause, as it afterwards occasioned numbers of unsanctified critics to laugh and cavil at him.
The Book of Curiosities | I. Platts
Some discontented Frerons or Arnauds, might cavil against it: but this was rebellion, not controversy.
Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume II (of 2) | John Hill BurtonThis appeared to be a contradiction in terms, but public apathy accepted it without cavil.
Somehow Good | William de Morgan
British Dictionary definitions for cavil
/ (ˈkævɪl) /
(intr; foll by at or about) to raise annoying petty objections; quibble; carp
a captious trifling objection
Origin of cavil
1Derived forms of cavil
- caviller, noun
- cavilling, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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