cavil

“The history demonstrates beyond cavil that the founding generation understood that ‘legislatures’ would operate as normal legislatures, not independent legislatures, with respect to both procedure and substance,” he writes.

From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022

This cavil has no bearing on the outcome of the case.

From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2019

They talk a lot about how something must be done about inequality and the need to address social unrest, but cavil at the idea they might be a big part of the problem.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 1, 2019

I wished the corn had been grilled rather than boiled, but that’s a cavil since I consumed two of three ears.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2018

The committee awarded Livingston his doctorate without cavil.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

These may be a reviewer’s cavils; Zoellick wrote the book, he gets to decide what to include.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 3, 2020

And yet ... as Gray wrote in her review, “None of these cavils stopped me from standing up and cheering, with tears in my eyes, for ‘Last Dance.’”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2019

Inevitably, as in any operatic career, there were critical cavils.

From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2018

Don’t be put off by these cavils, though.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2018

Let the over-strict teacher and the over-indulgent parent both come with their empty cavils, and before they boast of their own methods let them learn the method of Nature herself.

From Émile or, Concerning Education; Extracts by Steeg, Jules

Prospective investors had caviled at “the benevolence of Starbucks management”, he said, which gave all employees health insurance and stock options; they wanted the money spent on investor returns.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 30, 2017

No one has caviled that Hughes, who was too young for combat in World War I and too old for combat in World War II, should have chosen to write about both.

From Time Magazine Archive

Critics caviled in this case because cub reporters do not write editorials under their signatures on the front pages.

From Time Magazine Archive

Meanwhile, the FCC caviled about the frequencies he wanted to use.

From Time Magazine Archive

But let us begin with a life-story, where love resolved its "moonshine" into life, and justified itself even to stopping the mouths of certain self-appointed censors, who caviled much and quibbled overtime.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 13 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers by Hubbard, Elbert

This lack of a central authority is one of the reasons why Dimon cavilled in such strong terms last week.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 17, 2017

Critics cavilled slightly at his tendency to inject cosmic significance into his characters' activities.

From Time Magazine Archive

Critics cavilled, questioned the veracity of many incidents, doubted this man had experienced them all.

From Time Magazine Archive

The very associations which a more refined critic would have cavilled at had their attractions for him, and he gloried in the noise and uproar.

From The Daltons, Volume II (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Lever, Charles James

But however Pritchard's arrangements may be cavilled at, they certainly secured the capture of Davis.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 95, September 1865 by Various

So what was I caviling about to myself during intermission?

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025

What artist would want to tap into the flow of my caviling thoughts in the middle of a performance?

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2022

It would come off as cheeky caviling to basically say, “I don’t like the way you defended me and my property from a criminal.”

From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2016

It was hard to fault Woods’s performance, even after all the caviling about timing his announcement in the middle of a golf tournament and the ban on reporters’ questions.

From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2010

The writer of this is one of those few who never dishonors religion, either by ridiculing or caviling at any denominations whatsoever.

From Junius Unmasked or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of Independence by Moody, Joel

One reading of “The Shroud of Color” should be enough to convince the most cavilling reader.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2021

In the last month, the drip of doubtful decisions and cavilling explanations has become relentless.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 12, 2018

But it's Guineas weekend, a good time to celebrate the summer game rather than cavilling.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 30, 2010

Whereupon police, who had been listening, courteously hustled cavilling Major Franco and his huddle to jail for overnight detention.

From Time Magazine Archive

None, that is, worthy of anything but cavilling mention.

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger