caviling, carping, nitpicking, pettifogging, quibbling

quibbling over insignificant details; "caviling pettifoggers and quiggling pleaders"-Edmund Burke; "her nagging and carping attack"; "thought her editor unnecessarily nitpicking"; "a pettifogging lawyer's mind"; "had no patience with quibbling critics"

• critical — marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws