Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To argue or find fault over trivial matters or minor concerns; cavil.
- noun A trivial matter or minor concern raised in arguing or finding fault.
- noun Archaic A pun.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To trifle in argument or discourse; evade the point in question, or the plain truth, by artifice, play upon words, or any conceit; prevaricate.
- To pun.
- noun A start or turn from the point in question, or from plain truth; an evasion; a prevarication.
- noun A pun; a trivial conceit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; an evasion; a cavil.
- noun A pun; a low conceit.
- intransitive verb To evade the point in question by artifice, play upon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate.
- intransitive verb To pun; to practice punning.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A trivial or minor
complaint ,objection orargument . - verb intransitive To
complain orargue in atrivial orpetty manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections
- verb argue over petty things
- noun an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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As 'teleonomy' was specifically coined (Pittendrigh, 1958) to distinguish between actual and apparent purpose, the quibble is appropriate.
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My only slight quibble is the concept of her meeting a client at a pre-arranged time.
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As a teacher, my greatest philosophical quibble is always the notion that “every child should go to college”.
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My only quibble is placing the bullshit noncredible blurb above the title while relegating the contributor list to the very bottom, where is will be partially blocked by many shelf designs.
Book Cover Smackdown! 'Template' vs. 'Metatropolis' vs. 'The Skylark' 2010
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My only quibble is that the two best teams in the conference — San Jose and Detroit — don't have a starter.
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The biggest quibble is with his wowzer “mass upper class”.
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The only quibble is that I think she takes better care of her soldiers than Grant. rea says:
Matthew Yglesias » Kristol Complicates Napoleon Metaphors 2010
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Main quibble: “After the harvest there will not be masses of grapes left to rot on the vine.”
Champagne, French binge, Chicago – sipped and spit | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009
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My only quibble is that not many people would know its meaning and is not as consistent as the other named lines.
» City Council boards the DRL bandwagon • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape 2009
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I really don't get what your quibble is - other than to have one, perhaps???
sonofgroucho commented on the word quibble
Isn't quibble a lovely little word?
August 27, 2007
ofravens commented on the word quibble
Plath citations: see note at ruck.
April 14, 2008
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word quibble
Very useful if you're where I come from.
July 17, 2009
jwjarvis commented on the word quibble
denounced the willingness of members to quibble about fees and diagnosis
September 14, 2010
yarb commented on the word quibble
...the clerk drove his old-time quibble slowly and noisily down the street...
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
qms commented on the word quibble
On “quibble” as a synonym for “pun,” Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare’s love of them:
Samuel Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare
January 6, 2015