Captious

Quick meaning: Captious is an adjective meaning Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.

Meaning

Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.

More Meanings

1. (obsolete) That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.

Example Sentences

A captious queſtion, Sir, and your’s is one, Deſerves an anſwer ſimilar, or none.

But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride.

[…]I know I loue in vaine, ſtriue againſt hope : Yet in this captious, and intemible Siue I ſtill poure in the waters of my loue And lacke not to looſe ſtill[…]

The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed.

Synonyms for captious

Depending on context, synonyms include tricky, thorny, sophistical, carping, critical, faultfinding.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include critical, faultfinding, catchy, sophisticative, insidious, contraptious.

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