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Definition
an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections; or to raise trivial objections- My only cavil with...
- A frequent cavil with Joan is that it's hard to keep up with her.
- ...the skin, which she had been used to cavil at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no fuller bloom.Jane Austen -- Emma
- ...all three of the lost men were accounted for, beyond cavil or question.Mark Twain -- A Tramp Abroad
- Tis love you cavil at; I am not Love.Shakespeare -- Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Writer of this, is one of those few, who never dishonours religion either by ridiculing, or cavilling at any denomination whatsoever.Thomas Paine -- Common Sense
- And for all her infectious lightness of heart, I knew it was an extremely petty cavil that Kitsey never seemed very moved by anything.Donna Tartt -- The Goldfinch
- "Cavilling, not gravelling," said Don Quixote, "thou prevaricator of honest language, God confound thee!"Miguel de Cervantes -- Don Quixote
- Anne, far from wishing to cavil at the pleasure, replied, "I can easily believe it.Jane Austen -- Persuasion
- Miss Ophelia felt rather disposed to cavil at this picture, and was laying down her knitting to begin, but St. Clare stopped her.Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- "What did we say Simpson's was?" asked Morel; and the butties cavilled for a minute over the dayman's earnings.D.H. Lawrence -- Sons and Lovers
- That's but a cavil; he is old, I young.William Shakespeare -- The Taming of the Shrew
- I am too gratified to get such a mark of your friendship at any price to cavil at the tone.Thomas Hardy -- Far from the Madding Crowd
- The count appeared, dressed with the greatest simplicity, but the most fastidious dandy could have found nothing to cavil at in his toilet.Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo
- After some little cavil at the word 'sincere,' and asking him if I had ever given him any answers which were not sincere, I promised him I would.Daniel Defoe -- Moll Flanders
- They ought not to have wandered into inflammatory declamations and unmeaning cavils about the extent of the powers.Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay -- The Federalist Papers
- I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land To any well-deserving friend; But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.William Shakespeare -- Henry IV, Part 1
- 'tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.William Shakespeare -- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Nor do I fear that my sensible reader, though most luxurious in his taste, will start, cavil, or be offended, because I have named but one article.Henry Fielding -- Tom Jones
- So were they all in their blind fancy, Mr Cavil and Mr Sometimes Godly, Mr Ape Swillale, Mr False Franklin, Mr Dainty Dixon, Young Boasthard and Mr Cautious Calmer.James Joyce -- Ulysses