| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | captious |
| Synonyms: | carping, caviling, censorious, critical, demanding, faultfinding, finicky, fussy, hair-splitting, hard to please, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, persnickety |
| Main Entry: | carping |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complaining |
| Synonyms: | bellyaching, caviling, censorious, critical, criticizing, deprecatory, disparaging, fault-finding, griping, grouchy, grousing, grumbling, hypercritical, kvetching, moaning, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, quibbling, scathing, whining |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, forgiving |
| Main Entry: | censorious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very critical |
| Synonyms: | accusatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, chiding, complaining, condemnatory, condemning, critical, culpatory, denouncing, disapproving, disparaging, fault-finding, hypercritical, overcritical, reprehending, reproaching, severe |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, encouraging, flattering, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | critical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fault-finding, detracting |
| Synonyms: | analytical, belittling, biting, calumniatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, censuring, choleric, condemning, critic, cutting, cynical, demanding, demeaning, derogatory, diagnostic, disapproving, discerning, discriminating, disparaging, exacting, exceptive, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, humbling, hypercritical, lowering, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, particular, penetrating, reproachful, sarcastic, satirical, scolding, severe, sharp, trenchant, withering |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | exacting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | demanding |
| Synonyms: | burdensome, by the book, careful, critical, difficult, exigent, finicky, fussy, grievous, hard, harsh, hypercritical, imperious, nit-picking, onerous, oppressive, painstaking, particular, persnickety, picky, precise, rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, strict, stringent, taxing, tough, trying, unsparing, weighty |
| Antonyms: | giving, lending |
| Main Entry: | fastidious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very careful, meticulous |
| Synonyms: | captious, choosy, critical, dainty, demanding, difficult, discriminating, easily disgusted, exacting, finical, finicky, fussbudgety, fussy, hard to please, hypercritical, nice, nit-picky, overdelicate, overnice, particular, persnickety*, picky, punctilious, queasy, squeamish, stickling |
| Antonyms: | indifferent, indiscriminating, uncareful, uncouth, uncritical, undemanding |
| Main Entry: | fault-finding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical |
| Synonyms: | captious, carping, fussy, hairsplitting, hard to please, hypercritical, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, pettifogging, quibbling |
| Main Entry: | irritable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | bad-tempered, crabby |
| Synonyms: | annoyed, bearish, brooding, cantankerous, carping, choleric, complaining, contentious, crabbed, cross, crotchety, disputatious, dissatisfied, dyspeptic, easily offended, exasperated, fiery, fractious, fretful, fretting, gloomy, grouchy, grumbling, hasty, hot, huffy, hypercritical, ill-humored, irascible, moody, morose, out of humor, oversensitive, peevish, petulant, plaintive, prickly, querulous, quick-tempered, resentful, sensitive, snappy, snarling, surly, tense, testy, touchy |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, happy, nice |
| Main Entry: | sharp-tongued |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical |
| Synonyms: | belittling, biting, carping, censuring, condemning, cursing, cutting, cynical, demeaning, derogatory, harsh, hypercritical, mean, nasty, sarcastic, satirical |