faultfinding

critical, hypercritical, faultfinding, captious, carping, censorious mean inclined to look for and point out faults and defects. critical may also imply an effort to see a thing clearly and truly in order to judge it fairly.

• • a critical essay

hypercritical suggests a tendency to judge by unreasonably strict standards.

• • hypercritical disparagement of other people's work

faultfinding implies a querulous or exacting temperament.

• • a faultfinding reviewer

captious suggests a readiness to detect trivial faults or raise objections on trivial grounds.

• • a captious critic

carping implies an ill-natured or perverse picking of flaws.

• • a carping editorial

censorious implies a disposition to be severely critical and condemnatory.

• • the censorious tone of the review