01 a. Apt to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please.
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1.
Apt to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please.“A captious and suspicious age.” — Stillingfleet.“I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to abide the test of a captious controversy.” — Bwike.
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2.
Fitted to harass, perplex, or insnare; insidious; troublesome.“Captious restraints on navigation.” — Bancroft.“Caviling is the carping of argument, carping the caviling of ill temper.” — C. J. Smith.
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.