nit-picking
Britishnoun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nit-picking
C20: from nit 1 + pick 1
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.
Gaining any new clarity about surging reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, will take time, better data gathering and diagnostic tools and, perhaps most importantly, a hale and hearty dose of nit-picking scientific scrutiny.
From Scientific American • Jun. 9, 2023
I’m on the Kael side of this divide, and this repurposing, linking Kael with a hack biographer, rubbed me the wrong way, but that’s life, and it’s nit-picking, and it’s a whole other freeway.
From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2023
"Maybe there are a couple of little bits you could tighten here or there, but I think it's really nit-picking."
From BBC • Nov. 9, 2022
Spending so much time at home has me nit-picking every little stain and mark on my walls.
From Slate • Nov. 30, 2020
There seemed to be a single file of nit-picking bureaucrats from Pondicherry to Minneapolis via Delhi and Washington, each with his form, his problem, his hesitation.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
