English Dictionary

CAPTIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does captious mean? 

CAPTIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective CAPTIOUS has 1 sense:

1. tending to find and call attention to faultsplay

  Familiarity information: CAPTIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


CAPTIOUS (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Tending to find and call attention to faults

Synonyms:

captious; faultfinding

Context example:

an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor

Similar:

critical (marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws)

Derivation:

caption (taking exception; especially a quibble based on a captious argument)


 Context examples 


The consciousness of having done amiss, had exposed her to a thousand inquietudes, and made her captious and irritable to a degree that must have been—that had been—hard for him to bear.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was rather disappointed that I did not hear from her again speedily; but I made excuses for her, and was too busy, and—may I add? —too cheerful in my views to be captious.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)



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