cavil
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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The organization’s main cavil — that the measure will have inordinate impact on small medical practices — is largely a smokescreen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2020
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
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
For all the cavils about cookie-cutter proposals, there was a refreshing diversity in the social-media pitches of the candidates.
From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2022
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
And yet ... as Gray wrote in her review, “None of these cavils stopped me from standing up and cheering, with tears in my eyes, for ‘Last Dance.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2019
Don’t be put off by these cavils, though.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2018
"Everywhere," wrote Madison in October, "the progress of the public sentiment mocks the cavils and clamors of the malignant adversaries of the administration."
From James Madison by Sydney Howard Gay
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
Indeed, some U.S. policymakers caviled at Thant's plan.
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
"I knowed it!" caviled Lazy Daisy sotto voce to no one in particular.
From Old Lady Number 31 by Louise Forsslund
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 slightly at his tendency to inject cosmic significance into his characters' activities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Critics cavilled, questioned the veracity of many incidents, doubted this man had experienced them all.
From Time Magazine Archive
Had they who cavilled at his high-placed love but known the truth; how she whom he so worshipped, on her part, adored him?
From Cruel As The Grave by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
But however Pritchard's arrangements may be cavilled at, they certainly secured the capture of Davis.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 95, September 1865 by Various
So what was I caviling about to myself during intermission?
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
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
“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
Cease this miserable caviling which you and Joseph are at work on night and day—ridiculous for him, and still less appropriate for you.
From The Rose of Old St. Louis by Mary Dillon
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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