captious
[kap-shuh s]
- apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects; faultfinding; difficult to please.
- proceeding from a faultfinding or caviling disposition: He could never praise without adding a captious remark.
- apt or designed to ensnare or perplex, especially in argument: captious questions.
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Origin of captious
Synonyms
See more synonyms for captious on Thesaurus.com1. carping, nitpicking, niggling, picky, testy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for captious
Historical Examples
What a captious old woman will my sister make, if she lives to be one!
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
He is critical, but not captious; laudatory, but not fulsome.
I cannot afford to be irritable and captious, nor to waste all my time in attacks.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
Sewell, however, was no captious critic; he took what he got, and was thankful.
Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume I.Charles James Lever
If one were captious, one might object to the thickness of his lips.
captious
- apt to make trivial criticisms; fault-finding; carping
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Word Origin
C14 (meaning: catching in error): from Latin captiōsus, from captiō a seizing; see caption
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for captious
adj.
c.1400, capcyus, from Middle French captieux (15c.) or directly from Latin captiosus "fallacious," from captionem (nominative captio) "a deceiving, fallacious argument," literally "a taking (in)," from captus, past participle of capere "to take, catch" (see capable). Related: Captiously; captiousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper