CAVIL (cavilled, cavilling)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: cavilled    , cavilling   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cavil mean? 

• CAVIL (noun)
  The noun CAVIL has 1 sense:

1. an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections

  Familiarity information: CAVIL used as a noun is very rare.

• CAVIL (verb)
  The verb CAVIL has 1 sense:

1. raise trivial objections

  Familiarity information: CAVIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAVIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cavil; quibble; quiddity

Hypernyms ("cavil" is a kind of...):

equivocation; evasion (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)

Derivation:

cavil (raise trivial objections)

• CAVIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cavil    ... he / she / it cavils   
Past simple: caviled    / cavilled   
Past participle: caviled    / cavilled   
-ing form: caviling    / cavilling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Raise trivial objections

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

carp; cavil; chicane

Hypernyms (to "cavil" is one way to...):

object (express or raise an objection or protest or criticism or express dissent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

cavil (an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections)

caviler; caviller (a disputant who quibbles; someone who raises annoying petty objections)

 Context examples 

Anne, far from wishing to cavil at the pleasure, replied, I can easily believe it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Her eyes, a deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eyebrows, had never been denied their praise; but the skin, which she had been used to cavil at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no fuller bloom.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

You will tell me, I know, that this may or may NOT have happened; but I will listen to no cavil, unless you can point out any other method of understanding the affair as satisfactory at this.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)