'Captious' definitions:
Definition of 'captious'
(from WordNet)
adjective
Tending to find and call attention to faults; "a captious pedant"; "an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor" [syn: captious, faultfinding]
Definition of 'Captious'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- A captious and suspicious age. --Stillingfleet. [1913 Webster]
- I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to abide the test of a captious controversy. --Bwike. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Fitted to harass, perplex, or insnare; insidious; troublesome. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- Caviling is the carping of argument, carping the caviling of ill temper. --C. J. Smith. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'captious'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- bickering,
- carping,
- caviling,
- censorious,
- choplogic,
- contrary,
- critic,
- critical,
- cynical,
- demanding,
- equivocatory,
- evasive,
- exacting,
- faultfinding,
- finicky,
- hairsplitting,
- hedging,
- hypercritical,
- irritable,
- logic-chopping,
- nagging,
- niggling,
- nit-picking,
- overcritical,
- paltering,
- particular,
- peevish,
- pernickety,
- perverse,
- pettifogging,
- petty,
- petulant,
- picayune,
- pussyfooting,
- quibbling,
- shuffling,
- snappish,
- snappy,
- testy,
- trichoschistic,
- trifling,
- trivial,
- ultracritical