quibble

verb quib·ble \ ˈkwi-bəl \

Updated on: 16 Apr 2018

Definition of quibble

quibbled; quibbling play \ˈkwi-b(ə-)liŋ\

intransitive verb

1 : to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words

2 a : cavil, carp

b : bicker

transitive verb

: to subject to quibbles

—

quibbler

play \ˈkwi-b(ə-)lər\ noun

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Examples of quibble in a Sentence

he spent the entire evening quibbling about the historical inaccuracies in the television series on World War II
don't quibble over who gets to sit in front

Recent Examples of quibble from the Web

But lawmakers are still quibbling over a bevy of specific provisions that could be jammed into the $1.3 trillion spending bill.

— deirdre shesgreen, USA TODAY, "Republicans unveil $1.3 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2018," 19 Mar. 2018
The conference may not have a viable national title contender in its ranks, but there’s no quibbling with its depth of quality.

— chris johnson, SI.com, "March Madness Day 1 Takeaways: Loyola-Chicago Provides a Spark; SEC Shines While Pac-12 Flops," 16 Mar. 2018
Mostly these characters talk over and around each other, quibbling over semantics instead of articulating ideas.

— alexis soloski, New York Times, "Review: In ‘Education,’ a Fictional Protest That Pales Next to Real Ones," 15 Mar. 2018
That may seem like quibbling, but the legal standard for obstruction of justice is difficult to meet, especially when a president's broad executive authorities are involved.

— aaron blake, Washington Post, "6 important questions Robert Mueller will want to ask President Trump," 25 Jan. 2018
But Lenovo has also made a number of small modifications beyond this, addressing perhaps my one quibble from last year's model, and more.

— peter bright, Ars Technica, "The best laptop of last year adds HDR, facial recognition, and 8th-gen processors," 9 Jan. 2018
There may still be room to quibble about the bureau’s methods, and none of this changes the reality that Massachusetts has some of the widest divides between high- and low-income residents.

— evan horowitz, BostonGlobe.com, "Mass. housing costs are high, but so are average wages," 8 Mar. 2018
The Senate Budget Committee did not quibble with Schumer’s Medicare number.

— ajc homepage, ajc, "PolitiFact: Schumer overstates GOP budget, tax plan link," 13 Oct. 2017
But there is no quibbling with Vandeweghe’s results in the Grand Slam tournaments.

— christopher clarey, ben rothenberg and david waldstein, New York Times, "U.S. Open: Del Potro Disrupts Federer-Nadal Meeting; Keys Rounds Out All-American Semifinals," 6 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'quibble.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.