Quibble \Quib"ble\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Quibbled; p. pr. & vb.
n. Quibbling.]
1. 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.
[1913 Webster]
2. To pun; to practice punning. --Cudworth.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: To cavil; shuffle; equivocate; trifle.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
quibbling
adj : 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" [syn: caviling, carping,
nitpicking, pettifogging]
WordNet (r) 2.0
75 Moby Thesaurus words for "quibbling":
adverse criticism, animadversion, aspersion, bad notices,
bad press, bickering, boggling, captious, captiousness, carping,
cavil, caviling, censoriousness, chicane, chicanery, choplogic,
critical, criticism, cynical, dodging, equivocation, equivocatory,
evasion, evasive, exception, faultfinding, fencing, flak,
hairsplitting, hedging, hit, home thrust, hostile criticism,
hypercritical, hypercriticalness, hypercriticism, imputation,
knock, logic-chopping, nagging, niggle, niggling, nit, nit-picking,
obloquy, overcritical, overcriticalness, paltering, parrying,
pestering, pettifoggery, pettifogging, petty, picayune,
prevarication, priggishness, pussyfooting, quibble, rap,
reflection, reproachfulness, shifting, shuffling, sidestepping,
slam, stricture, subterfuge, swipe, taking exception,
tergiversation, trichoschistic, trichoschistism, trifling, trivial,
ultracritical
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
carping, caviling, nitpicking, pettifogging
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