quibble
Americannoun
-
an instance of the use of ambiguous, prevaricating, or irrelevant language or arguments to evade a point at issue.
- Synonyms:
- ambiguity, shift, sophism, equivocation, evasion
-
the general use of such arguments.
-
petty or carping criticism; a minor objection.
verb (used without object)
-
quibbles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
quibbled,
past participle, past
-
quibbling
present participle
-
to equivocate.
-
to carp; cavil.
verb
-
to make trivial objections; prevaricate
-
archaic to play on words; pun
noun
-
a trivial objection or equivocation, esp one used to avoid an issue
-
archaic a pun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
quibblesimple
-
quibblessimple
-
have quibbledperfect
-
has quibbledperfect
-
am quibblingprogressive
-
are quibblingprogressive
-
is quibblingprogressive
-
have been quibblingperfect progressive
-
has been quibblingperfect progressive
Past
-
quibbledsimple
-
had quibbledperfect
-
was quibblingprogressive
-
were quibblingprogressive
-
had been quibblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of quibble
1605–15; perhaps derivative ( cf. -le) of quib gibe, apparently akin to quip
Explanation
A quibble is a small argument or fight. As a verb, it means to pick a mini-fight over something that doesn't really matter. "Let's not quibble over price," people will say, usually when they plan to gouge you. It's better to watch figure skating with the sound off, rather than listening to the announcers quibble over a not-fully-rotated knee or the slightly diminished altitude of a jump. Sometimes a quibble between neighbors over two feet of property can escalate into a major feud.
Vocabulary lists containing quibble
Fahrenheit 451
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List 7
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This Week in Words: October 28 - November 2, 2018
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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.
See Examples For:
The lawsuit turns on what laypeople might consider a minor quibble: who is responsible for the equipment connecting the city Department of Water and Power’s electrical grid to the people mover.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
That affords the company little room for error, Lee said in a Tuesday note, and he found something else to quibble with in the latest report.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
But the Surge’s bylaws are clear that no nit be left unpicked, and so we have to quibble with his framing.
From Slate ● Jan. 17, 2026
As dispassionate buyers who paid cash and didn’t quibble over ugly paint or dingy carpet, they beat out regular buyers without having to outbid them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
It was less diplomatic congratulations than he’d received from Reynie and Kate—who had cheered and clapped him on the back—but Sticky was too relieved to quibble.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
Forget the quibbles about not being pleasing on the eye or too many set-pieces.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
While some of the quibbles with ServiceNow’s latest earnings are more company-specific, including margin impacts related to recent deal closures, other aspects may have wider implications for the sector.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 23, 2026
Next, the FDA quibbles that patients who had every tumor injected had higher remission rates than those who had only some.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
And the group commutations, whatever one thinks of them as criminal justice policy, suffered from defects stemming from hasty execution that open the door to legal quibbles and political exploitation.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2025
This attitude was reinforced over the next few years, when a succession of critics, clearly Newton’s intellectual inferiors, raised a host of quibbles about his work, which showed their own ignorance more than anything else.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Close hasn’t quibbled with her team’s seeding despite its impressive 31-1 regular-season record against a loaded schedule.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
The agency also quibbled that Regenxbio’s trial lacked a placebo arm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
Researchers quibbled with the terminology, but that was essentially what had happened.
From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2024
I don't think anyone would have quibbled at all.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2023
Danny and Joe chattered, quibbled, and stuffed their mouths, oblivious to the tension in the air.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Semantics are more important than they may seem; it’s not just about quibbling over language.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
It was a mistake to think that you could give the beach cottage to these quibbling brothers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
But she dismissed arguments that regular sugar is less processed as "completely quibbling", noting that both products require stripping out fibre and other nutritional benefits.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2025
Yet quibbling would seem as tweedy as arguing that the film is peddling both nostalgia and anemoia — a longing for an era one never knew firsthand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025
For every bit of awe we felt in Kenya, we were also tired, which led to quibbling, which led finally, for whatever reason, to rage.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
