1
as in complaining
to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant
he spent the entire evening quibbling about the historical inaccuracies in the television series on World War II
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in bickering
to express different opinions about something often angrily
don't quibble over who gets to sit in front
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in nitpicking
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
as in ambiguity
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of quibbling
Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025
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
More support tickets, more quibbling, more negotiating.
—Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Noun
Joy Randolph and John Early, as the two Afterlife Coordinators, have a quibbling charisma, but the movie should have done more with all its possible versions of paradise, figuring out how to use them comedically instead of just as easy punchlines.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quibbling
Verb
-
In my experience as an outfitter, Altra has always been my go-to suggestion whenever a customer walks in complaining about foot problems.—
Alice Bennett,
Travel + Leisure,
11 Sep. 2025
-
Miami is awful, and everyone should’ve known it the minute their players were complaining that their joint practice with the Bears was too tough.—
Jon Greenberg,
New York Times,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Coaches are also bickering about money, a topic that would have felt out of place 10 years ago.—
Eben Novy-Williams,
Sportico.com,
5 Sep. 2025
-
The casting here is perfection itself, with Cumberbatch and Colman bickering back and forth with all the drawing-room style of a new age Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall, or maybe the Burton and Taylor of The Taming of the Shrew with a dab of Virginia Woolf.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
According to the outlet’s research findings, uncertainty and ambiguity are hallmarks of entrepreneurship.—
Jasmine Browley,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
-
Curiosity and possibly even lust play into their first encounter; part of the welcome complexity between this pale-skinned woman of substance and this tall, equally alabaster, formerly dead drink of water is the ambiguity in their initial interactions.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
That might seem like nitpicking, except this is a franchise that has had the luxury of starting-caliber linemen as reserves.—
Zach Berman,
New York Times,
17 Aug. 2025
-
Still, with star power and depth at all three levels of the defense, pointing out weaknesses is an act of nitpicking at this point.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
5 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Who doesn’t have childhood memories of arguing about Boardwalk and Park Place until the popcorn bowl got knocked over during an evening of wholesome family entertainment?—
Michael Deeds,
Idaho Statesman,
11 Sep. 2025
-
In one video, a female student and the professor can be heard arguing over gender identity being taught in a children’s literature class.—
Sasha Rogelberg,
Fortune,
11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
His celebration was subtle yet suave, a drop of his bat with a flick of his wrist.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
13 Sep. 2025
-
This is clearly a quick screen and may not pick up more subtle issues.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The vessel was operating in international waters but that added to the murkiness of the legal justification.—
Emily Goodin,
Miami Herald,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Many technological challenges abound in the murkiness of natural language chatting.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
This was the mid 1980s and tandem skydiving hadn’t been popularized yet, so his father, Roger, adjusted accordingly by stuffing carpet padding into the leg pads to stop him from fussing.—
Angelina Liu,
People.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Quibbling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quibbling. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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