Sample sentences for CAVIL - verbalworkout.com

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Definition

an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections; or to raise trivial objections

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

(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ING".)

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

(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ING".)

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

(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ED".)

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
Next for thy cavilling Of wrath at mine alliance with a king, Here thou shalt see I both was wise, and free From touch of passion, and a friend to thee Most potent, and my children ....
Euripides -- Medea

(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ING".)

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