cavil
Example Sentences
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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
Copyright holders may cavil, but it's just such dedication that can make an old canceled show seem like a new good bet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2018
My one cavil about it is that Ralph Lauren seems to have designed a very strange shield featuring the stars and stripes of the American flag, as though drawing from heraldry.
From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2018
The committee awarded Livingston his doctorate without cavil.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Among its cavils are that the AI-produced images have flaws that would have been caught by human animators, and also that Coke hasn’t accommodated “its customers’ aversion to AI.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
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
Despite my few cavils, “Avid Reader” will be avidly read by anyone interested in the publishing world of the past 60 years.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2016
Carp′er, one who carps or cavils; Carp′ing, cavilling: fault-finding.—adv.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
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
Critics caviled in this case because cub reporters do not write editorials under their signatures on the front pages.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
This logic can not be caviled with or gainsaid.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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
As if I cavilled at Matthew and Luke, and not at those who, out of ignorance and carelessness, have corrupted them.
From Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Johan Huizinga
She did not object much to her own part, but she cavilled suddenly at Janie's—or at Harry's relation to Janie.
From Tristram of Blent An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House by Anthony Hope
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
“Why do you wear that stuff?” she was asked, a question that has passed between many a caviling mother and obdurate teenage daughter.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2016
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
Step by step, as she advanced, she has proved her right, to the satisfaction of caviling skepticism itself....
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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
Vocabulary lists containing cavil
Walden
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 11
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