cavil

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

It is a risky business turning a near-perfect thing into a somewhat less-perfect thing, but it feels churlish to cavil about so much hard work done in a celebratory spirit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2017

Surely there are superb teachers who carp at every pile of homework to be corrected, or successful contractors who cavil at every check-out line at Home Depot.

From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2013

The committee awarded Livingston his doctorate without cavil.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

This proposal generated cavils in the chattering classes that it would drive home prices up to absorb the $25,000 grant, putatively keeping homes out of the reach of the beneficiaries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2024

The short answer to these cavils is that such hand-wringing is simply not a part of Brooks’s sunny disposition.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2018

Indeed, more than once they have drawn criticism for burying their fundamental message - that society is running some huge risks -- in caveats and cavils.

From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2013

That consciousness makes me indifferent to the expected cavils of illiberal criticism.

From Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace by Anna Seward

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

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

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

These symptoms of state and ceremony, as we have hinted, were much caviled at by the thinking, and talking, part of the community.

From Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete by Washington Irving

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Robert had begun to understand the older man's methods, and also to understand that they were not to be cavilled at or disputed, even by a nephew for whom he had undoubtedly considerable affection.

From The Portion of Labor by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

Experts assure me that we have here to deal, not with a case of "moral insanity", but with a very common experience,—although this view will probably be cavilled at by enthusiastic lovers of horses.

From Clever Hans (The horse of Mr. Von Osten): A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology by Oskar Pfungst

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

Someone better warn these caviling critics about Hamlet.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2021

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

Henrik Lundqvist: Early-season concern over a handful of spotty games and caviling over the occasional soft goal were, and continue to be, overreactions.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2011

And while I'm not caviling, you will pardon me, son, if I suggest that hereafter you play square with me.

From Blacksheep! Blacksheep! by Meredith Nicholson

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