cavillation

Grammar concerning the kinds of words, their derivations, deflexions, and syntax; specially enriching the same with the helps of several languages, with their differing proprieties of words, phrases, and tropes; they might have found out more and better footsteps of common reason, help of disputation, and advantages of cavillation, than many of these which they have propounded.

Valerius Terminus: of the interpretation of Nature 2003

But who should do thus, I confess, should requite the objections made against poets, with like cavillation against philosophers; as likewise one should do, that should bid one read

English literary criticism Various

The charges were based on sermons spread over two or three years, a circumstance which of itself suggests that the prosecution had been got up for ulterior government purposes; that it was a 'forged cavillation,' as Bruce called it in his pulpit in

Andrew Melville Famous Scots Series William Morison

But the more and holier ceremonies the league is knit up with, the sooner it is broken by some cavillation found in the words, which many times of purpose be so craftily put in and placed, that the bands can never be so sure nor so strong, but they will find some hole open to creep out at, and to break both league and truth.

The Second Book. Of Bondmen, Sick Persons, Wedlock, and divers other matters 1909

Amidst such cavillation she donned the next day her best petticoat and ribbons to his to the

First Love (Little Blue Book #1195) And Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life Seraf��n Est��banez Calder��n 1833

And such is their method, that rests not so much upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and objection; breeding for the most part one question as fast as it solveth another; even as in the former resemblance, when you carry the light into one corner, you darken the rest; so that the fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of this kind of philosophy or knowledge; which was transformed into

The Advancement of Learning 2003

And such is their method, that rests not so much upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and objection; breeding for the most part one question as fast as it solveth another; even as in the former resemblance, when you carry the light into one corner, you darken the rest; so that the fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of this kind of philosophy or knowledge; which was transformed into a comely virgin for the upper parts; but then

The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593

God, Thomas, Abp. of Canterbury, unto a crafty and sophistical cavillation devised by Stephen Gardener, "&c.

Notes and Queries, Number 33, June 15, 1850 Various