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Quibble   /kwˈɪbəl/   Listen
noun
Quibble  n.  
1.
A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; an evasion; a cavil. "Quibbles have no place in the search after truth."
2.
A pun; a low conceit.


verb
Quibble  v. i.  (past & past part. quibbled; pres. part. quibbling)  
1.
To evade the point in question by artifice, play upon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate.
2.
To pun; to practice punning.
Synonyms: To cavil; shuffle; equivocate; trifle.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Quibble" Quotes from Famous Books



... turn to quibble. Tell me: until you were attracted to this young man—attracted, no doubt, because he was so unlike the European of your long experience—had you deviated from the conclusion, arrived at many years ...
— Black Oxen • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... statehood bill, he was for the Walker amendment. A fearful responsibility rested upon Congress. The sad fate of a family from his own State, which had moved to California, had brought home to him the full measure of his responsibility. He was not disposed to quibble over points of law, while American citizens in California were exposed to the outrages of desperadoes, and of deserters from our own army ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson
... Nevertheless, in so far as "Parsifal" says anything to us, in so far as it brings, in Nonconformist cant, "a message," it is immoral and vicious, just as in so far as "Siegfried" carries a message it is entirely moral, healthful, and sane. It is useless to quibble about this, seeking to explain away plain things: the truth remains that "Siegfried" is a glorification of one view of life, "Parsifal" of its direct opposite and flat contradiction; and anyone who accepts the one ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman
... must arise either from his endeavour to force Coke to a favourable decision, in which he was in all probability prompted by a feeling, not uncommon with him, that a matter of state policy was in danger of being sacrificed to some senseless legal quibble or precedent, or from his advice to the king that a rumour should be set afloat ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... "What a quibble to pretend he did not understand what I meant by INHABITANTS of South America; and any one would suppose that I had not throughout my volume touched on Geographical Distribution. He ignores also everything which I have said on Classification, ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II • Francis Darwin


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