captious

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Related to captious: congruity, choleric, aggrandizement, diatribe, perspicuity

cap·tious

(kăp′shəs)

adj.

1. Marked by a disposition to find and point out trivial faults: a captious scholar.

2. Intended to entrap or confuse, as in an argument: a captious question.

[Middle English capcious, from Old French captieux, from Latin captiōsus, from captiō, seizure, sophism, from captus, past participle of capere, to seize; see kap- in Indo-European roots.]

cap′tious·ly adv.

cap′tious·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

captious

(ˈkæpʃəs)

adj

apt to make trivial criticisms; fault-finding; carping

[C14 (meaning: catching in error): from Latin captiōsus, from captiō a seizing; see caption]

ˈcaptiously adv

ˈcaptiousness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cap•tious

(ˈkæp ʃəs)

adj.

1. apt to focus on trivial faults or defects; faultfinding.

2. proceeding from a faultfinding disposition.

3. apt or designed to ensnare or perplex: captious questions.

[1350–1400; Middle English capcious < Latin captiōsus=capti(ō) deception, sophism (see caption) + -ōsus -ous]

cap′tious•ly, adv.

cap′tious•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

captious - tending to find and call attention to faults; "a captious pedant"; "an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor"

faultfinding

critical - marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws; "a critical attitude"

captious

adjective

Inclined to judge too severely:

carping, censorious, critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical.

Translations

capzioso

captious

[ˈkæpʃəs] ADJ (liter) → criticón, reparón

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

captious

adj person → überkritisch, pedantisch; remark → spitzfindig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

captious

[ˈkæpʃəs] adj (frm) → ipercritico/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Judges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables; Salus populi suprema lex; and to know that laws, except they be in order to that end, are but things captious, and oracles not well inspired.

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Pickwick humorous, the old lady serious, the fat gentleman captious, and Mr.

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The consciousness of having done amiss, had exposed her to a thousand inquietudes, and made her captious and irritable to a degree that must have been that had beenhard for him to bear.

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Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged.

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We shall not detain the reader with a description of the captious discussions that occupied the court for the first two hours, Judge Temple had impressed on the jury, in his charge, the necessity for dispatch on their part, recommending to their notice, from motives of humanity, the prisoners in the jail as the first objects of their attention.

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For the few first hours, the cares of the honest and warm-hearted girl were confined to the simple offices of satisfying the often-repeated demands which her younger associates made on her time and patience, under the pretences of hunger, thirst, and all the other ceaseless wants of captious and inconsiderate childhood.

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"Now, my best of confidantes," said Richard, "I want my cousin Ada to understand that I am not captious, fickle, and wilful about John Jarndyce, but that I have this purpose and reason at my back.

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I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor to waste all my time in attacks.

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A single glance at the pair would have answered these questions to the utter satisfaction of the most captious. She was torn and bleeding from many wounds, inflicted by the sullen Toog in his vain efforts to subdue her to his will, and Toog too was disfigured and mutilated; but with stubborn ferocity, he still clung to his now useless prize.

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The most independent people feel the effect of a man's silence in heightening their value for his opinion--feel an additional triumph in conquering the reverence of a critic habitually captious and satirical: no wonder, then, that an enthusiastic self-distrusting youth should watch and wait before the closed secret of a sarcastic woman's face, as if it were the shrine of the doubtfully benignant deity who ruled his destiny.

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Moreover, according to the World Economic Report, the biggest threat to Pakistan is the water crisis, followed by unmanageable inflation, terrorist attacks, failure of urban planning and that captious infrastructure.

Water scarcity in Pakistan

Like others before it, the NBC News investigation painted a captious picture of the medtech industry, though it focused specifically on "export only" devices.

An Industry on the Defensive

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