Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality of being captious: disposition to find fault; inclination to object; peevishness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Captious disposition or manner.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the state of being
captious - noun captious behaviour
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word captiousness.
Examples
-
I've not "accused" you of captiousness, I've merely noticed that when it comes to Pope Benedict and the post-Vatican II magisterium of Holy Mother Church, you ARE captious.
-
Rather, you've accused me of captiousness and questioned by manners.
-
Rather, you've accused me of captiousness and questioned by manners.
-
Besides, captiousness, sullenness, and pouting are most exceedingly illiberal and vulgar.
Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005
-
This looks like mere captiousness but it covers a perfectly genuine grievance.
-
I was struck by the sudden transition from the touching sensibility with which she had just been speaking to me to this petty reckoning and captiousness.
Childhood 2003
-
“Yes — and I suppose you want to know why,” she replied with dry captiousness.
The Gambler 2003
-
I suppose the confused and abrupt expression of things here, in words scarcely affording a tolerable sense, is rather from weakness than captiousness; and so I shall let the manner of the proposal pass.
A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity 1616-1683 1965
-
All this exactness of requisition appeared to me to be going rather too far; and I exhibited my feeling on the subject, in the tone in which I replied, that I had stated every thing that was necessary for the satisfaction of a "man of sense, but that I had neither the faculty nor the inclination to indulge the captiousness of any man."
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843 Various
-
-- While captiousness of manner, and the habit of disputing and contradicting every thing said, is chilling and repulsive, the opposite habit of assenting to, and sympathizing with, every statement made, or emotion expressed, is almost equally disagreeable.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.