Cavil

//ˈkæv.əl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A petty or trivial objection or criticism.

    "It is not worth while to spend your time in arguing against a cavil, but make him feel he is committing a sin to plead it, and thus enlist his conscience on your side."

  2. 2
    an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To criticise for petty or frivolous reasons. intransitive

    "'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love."

  2. 2
    raise trivial objections wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
nitpickpettifogquibblesplit hairsadverse criticismambiguity

Example

More examples

"He was known to cavil at most of Tom's proposals."

Etymology

From Old French caviller (“mock, jest, rail”), from Latin cavillor (“jeer, mock, satirise, reason captiously”), from cavilla (“jeering, raillery, scoffing”); cognate with Italian cavillare, Portuguese cavillar, and Spanish cavilar; nominal usage developed within English from the original verbal usage.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.