as in to complain
to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant
caviled for hours about a single sentence
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in quibble
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cavil
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2021
However, the actual interiors of this four-bedroom home are nothing to cavil at.
—Kelly Corbett, House Beautiful, 7 Oct. 2020
Noun
Naysayers often cavil that California’s economic growth depends almost entirely on Silicon Valley and the capital gains income of its wealthiest residents, but its primacy in high technology encompasses fields outside Northern California, such as biotech.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2021
However, the actual interiors of this four-bedroom home are nothing to cavil at.
—Kelly Corbett, House Beautiful, 7 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cavil
Verb
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Some residents and candidates have complained that Area Towing often overcharged customers, unaware of the costs when getting their vehicles towed.—
Niraj Warikoo,
Freep.com,
7 Aug. 2025
-
Republicans complain about the district’s heavy Democratic lean.—
Naomi Lim,
The Washington Examiner,
6 Aug. 2025
Noun
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One quibble: the notable lack of San Diego beers made this a bittersweet read.—
Peter Rowe,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
18 July 2025
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Send your wine questions and quibbles to sethebarlowwine@gmail.com Support journalism that digs deeper into topics that matter most to Arkansans.—
arkansasonline.com,
arkansasonline.com,
8 July 2025
Verb
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The market will nitpick a couple of areas in the quarter over the next few days, including questioning why AWS didn't deliver the same type of revenue upside as rivals Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.—
Jeff Marks,
CNBC,
1 Aug. 2025
-
Some customers aren’t thrilled with their nitpicking nature.—
Andrew Nusca,
Fortune,
10 July 2025
Noun
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Harvard’s quarrel with Trump is the extreme example: in March, the administration revoked the university’s ability to grant travel visas, though Harvard’s deal with the University of Toronto may circumvent this issue for now.—
Liz Doe Stone,
Forbes.com,
26 July 2025
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The two quarrel over the Ukrainian leader’s outfit before trading jabs in the air with Trump firing a water gun at the Ukrainian president.—
Chris Lau,
CNN Money,
14 July 2025
Verb
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Inside, Seán glanced briefly away from the television as the women fussed at Orla’s return.—
Anne Enright,
New Yorker,
27 July 2025
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But other times, windows would be rearranged seemingly at random, with unused space and weird gaps that require you to fuss around and move all your windows around again.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
24 July 2025
Noun
-
There is little doubt that this is a rapidly developing field and that there are tremendous upsides to be had, but at the same time, regrettably, hidden risks and outright gotchas come into these endeavors too.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
8 Aug. 2025
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In quiet moments of doubt and in public acts of leadership.—
Thomas L. Friedman,
Mercury News,
7 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The sound of a heavy machine motor moaned from a tractor evening out the soil covering an oval enclosure, about the size of a football field.—
Jon-Michael Banks,
Kansas City Star,
31 July 2025
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Liam was basically telling the people who were moaning about a younger band to get stuffed.—
Devon Ivie,
Vulture,
30 July 2025
Noun
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The notice comes in the midst of a broader legal dispute between Wilson and The Deb's producers.—
Wesley Stenzel,
EW.com,
8 Aug. 2025
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Peter was working on Chime’s internal tools for managing customer support and disputes.—
Jeff Kauflin,
Forbes.com,
7 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cavil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cavil. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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