variants
or cavilling
as in critical
given to making or expressing unfavorable judgments about things
a caviling theater critic who has yet to see a play she likes
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
variants
or cavilling
as in complaining
to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant
caviled for hours about a single sentence
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for caviling
Adjective
-
For the first time in human history, your intelligence will no longer be critical to your survival.—
Dev Patnaik,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025 -
Whether the Yankees are willing to make that type of commitment to a player who will be 37 years old by the time the contract extension concludes will be perhaps the most critical question for the legendary franchise in the coming offseason.—
Jon Vankin,
MSNBC Newsweek,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Nah — not very long later, Tony is referencing his Bond obsession, complaining about the generic name of the secret drone-control computer program everyone is battling for here.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
4 Sep. 2025
-
But everybody was complaining and asking for a hot one.—
Andy Wang,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
So much of the new sobriety flex is anathema to the captious alcoholics of 12-step groups.—
Virginia Heffernan,
Wired,
19 Apr. 2022
-
That a right-wing party traditionally captious about American patriotism did not react heatedly to evidence of Russian interference in US elections is bizarre.—
Darryl Pinckney,
The New York Review of Books,
5 Nov. 2020
Adjective
-
My hypercritical brain took this imperfection and ran with it.—
Jailynn Taylor,
Allure,
26 June 2025
-
This has led to multiple fans getting hypercritical of the iconic wrestler, calling out his age and accusing him of simply being a product of former WCW president Eric Bischoff.—
Jeremy Hanna,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 June 2025
Verb
-
Ellis could be heard moaning and could be seen lying on the ground.—
Elena Santa Cruz,
AZCentral.com,
3 Sep. 2025
-
The patient is actually a training dummy that instructors can manipulate into yelling, moaning, retching, suffering blood pressure spikes, heart attacks and other medical emergencies.—
Beth Warren,
The Tennessean,
21 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
As this is a smaller toy and one with judicious amounts of diecast in the joints, this should make for a very good rendition of this classic mecha from Metal Gear Solid.—
Ollie Barder,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
-
But be judicious about application and follow the label instructions because these products kill beneficial bugs, too.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
24 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
When the murder of 100,000 people, many of them women and children, is mentioned or denounced, or when someone dares to use terms such as genocide, ethnocide, ethnic cleansing or similar, most people choose to take issue with the characterization, quibbling over semantics.—
Uriel Kon
September 2,
Literary Hub,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
In lesser hands, such a question, especially from a young white male who plays guitar for a living, could come off as whining.—
Joseph Hudak,
Rolling Stone,
5 Sep. 2025
-
And since then, his crying and whining have increased.—
Liz O'Connell,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Caviling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/caviling. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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