cavil

v., -iled, also -illed, -il·ing, -il·ling, -ils, -ils.

v.intr.
To find fault unnecessarily; raise trivial objections. See synonyms at quibble.

v.tr.
To quibble about; detect petty flaws in.

n.
A carping or trivial objection.

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

caviler cav'il·er n.

Maureen Dowd hit the top of our charts with cavil (to raise trivial objections), in a column that also put Queeg in our top 5.

"No matter how much Democrats may be caviling over the House Republicans' attempts to squelch the Ethics Committee before it goes after Mr. DeLay (the former exterminator who pushed to impeach Bill Clinton), privately they're rooting for Mr. DeLay to thrive. They're hoping to do in 2006 what the Republicans did in 1994, when Mr. Gingrich and his acolytes used Democratic arrogance and ethical lapses to seize the House."

Link: The Passion of the Tom.

Posted April 8, 2005

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

verb

To raise unnecessary or trivial objections: carp, niggle, nitpick, pettifog, quibble. Idioms: pick to pieces. See support/oppose.

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

A critic of our own work.

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Dansk (Danish)
v. intr. - kværulere
v. tr. - kritisere småligt
n. - smålig kritik

Nederlands (Dutch)
haarkloven, zeuren, gezeur

Français (French)
v. intr. - ergoter, pinailler
v. tr. - ergoter, pinailler
n. - point de détail

Deutsch (German)
v. - kritteln, Haarspalterei treiben
n. - unsachlicher Anwurf, Nörgelei

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - υπεκφεύγω, στρεψοδικώ

Italiano (Italian)
cavillare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - sofismar

Русский (Russian)
придираться

Español (Spanish)
v. intr. - poner reparos o peros, hacer críticas
v. tr. - poner reparos o peros, criticar
n. - reparo, crítica

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - kverulera, hacka

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
挑剔, 找错, 无端指摘, 吹毛求疵, 苛责

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. intr. - 挑剔, 找錯
v. tr. - 無端指摘
n. - 吹毛求疵, 無端指摘, 苛責

한국어 (Korean)
v. intr. - 흠잡다
v. tr. - 트집을 잡다
n. - 흠잡기

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - けちを付ける
n. - 揚げ足取り

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) أثار اعتراضات تافهه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮התאונן‬
v. tr. - ‮חיפש פגמים‬
n. - ‮התנגדות מטרידה וחסרת-חשיבות, התלוננות‬

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