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Thesaurus: captious

Apt to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please.

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  1. a. Apt to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please.
  2. a. Fitted to harass, perplex, or insnare; insidious; troublesome.
  3. adj. tending to find and call attention to faults
  4. 1. Art to catch at faults; disposed to find fault or to cavil; eager to object; difficult to please. A captius and suspicious. Stillingfleet. I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to adbide 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. -- 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.
  5. s. tending to find and call attention to faults