Captious CAPTIOUS, a. 1. Disposed to find fault, or raise
objections; apt to cavil, as in popular language, it is said, apt to catch
at; as a captious man. 2. Fitted to catch or ensnare; insidious;
as a captious question. 3. Proceeding from a caviling disposition;
as a captious objection or criticism.
captious
adj 1: tending to find and call attention to faults; "a captious
pedant"; "an excessively demanding and faultfinding
tutor" [syn: captious, faultfinding]
captious adjectiveEtymology: Middle English capcious, from Middle French or Latin;
Middle French captieux, from Latin captiosus, from captio
deception, verbal quibble, from capere to take — more at heaveDate: 14th century 1. marked by an often ill-natured
inclination to stress faults and raise objections <captious
critics> 2. calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
<a captious question> Synonyms:seecritical
• captiouslyadverb • captiousnessnoun
captious adj. given to finding fault or raising petty objections. Derivatives: captiously adv. captiousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF captieux or L captiosus (as CAPTION)
captious
ˈkæpʃəs adj. given to finding fault or raising petty
objections. øøcaptiously adv. captiousness n. [ME f. OF captieux or L
captiosus (as CAPTION)]
Captious \Cap"tious\, a. [F. captieux, L. captiosus. See
Caption.]
1. Apt to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to
cavil; eager to object; difficult to please.
A captious and suspicious age. --Stillingfleet.
I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to
abide the test of a captious controversy. --Bwike.
2. Fitted to harass, perplex, or insnare; insidious;
troublesome.
Captious restraints on navigation. --Bancroft.
Syn: Caviling, carping, fault-finding; censorious;
hypercritical; peevish, fretful; perverse; troublesome.
Usage: Captious, caviling, Carping. A captious person
is one who has a fault-finding habit or manner, or is
disposed to catch at faults, errors, etc., with
quarrelsome intent; a caviling person is disposed to
raise objections on frivolous grounds; carping implies
that one is given to ill-natured, persistent, or
unreasonable fault-finding, or picking up of the words
or actions of others.
Caviling is the carping of argument, carping the
caviling of ill temper. --C. J. Smith.
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