captious
/ˈkapʃəs
/adjective formal
Tending to find fault or raise petty objections: a captious teacher...
- These are not merely captious theoretical objections.
- Through his pen, inanity became animate, and the captious craft of caricature was raised to character study.
- To say that a man has adopted a vulgar prejudice, is calculated to give offence to no one but an illiterate booby, who does not know the meaning of the words, or a captious, inflated self-sufficient pedant.
Synonyms
critical, fault-finding, quibbling, niggling, cavilling, carping, criticizing, disapproving, censorious, judgemental, overcritical, hypercritical, pedantic, hair-splitting, pettifogging;
Scottish & Irish pass-remarkable
informal nitpicking, pernickety
Derivatives
captiously
/ adverb ...- We have no right to reject their instruction and captiously insist that nothing but positive command shall bind us.
- Indeed now I come to think of it I believe I have twice reviewed other books of yours rather captiously.
- And I captiously reflect how much better it must have sounded when it echoed to strains of music, instead of to the inanities of a young woman with a shrill voice and an uneducated intonation.
captiousness
/ noun ...- Finally, mention should be made of the author's logical arguments, and his clear and interesting style: satisfying the highest professional demands, this book contains no dry scholarly captiousness.
- Then was seen the unprecedented sight of a party agent challenging the votes on his own side with a captiousness that his opponents would have hesitated to display.
- By way of a protest against the captiousness to which their agents were subjected, the Polish authorities on August 2 prohibited the importation of this firm's products into Polish territory.
Origin
Late Middle English (also in the sense 'intended to deceive someone'): from Old French captieux or Latin captiosus, from captio(n-) 'seizing', (figuratively) 'deceiving' (see caption).