CAPTIOUS

captious, faultfinding

(adjective) tending to find and call attention to faults; “a captious pedant”; “an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

captious (comparative more captious, superlative most captious)

(obsolete) That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.

Synonyms: tricky, thorny, sophistical

Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.

Synonyms: carping, critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, nitpicky

Anagrams

• autopsic

Source: Wiktionary


Cap"tious, a. Etym: [F. captieux, L. captiosus. See Caption.]

1. Art to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please. A captius and suspicious. Stillingfleet. I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to adbide the test of a captious controversy. Bwike.

2. Fitted to harass, perplex, or insnare; insidious; troublesome. Captious restraints on navigation. Bancroft.

Syn.

– Caviling, carping, fault-finding; censorious; hypercritical; peevish, fretful; perverse; troublesome.

– Captious, caviling, Carping. A captious person is one who has a fault-finding habit or manner, or is disposed to catch at faults, errors, etc., with quarrelsome intent; a caviling person is disposed to raise objections on frivolous grounds; carping implies that one is given to ill-natured, persistent, or unreasonable fault-finding, or picking up of the words or actions of others. Caviling is the carping of argument, carping the caviling of ill temper. C. J. Smith.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 April 2024

SUBDUCTION

(noun) a geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate


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Coffee Trivia

Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world. Each year Brazil exports more than 44 million bags of coffee. Vietnam follows at exporting over 27 million bags each year.

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