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- Dictionarycaptious/ˈkapʃəs/
adjective
- 1. tending to find fault or raise petty objections: formal "a captious teacher"
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The meaning of CAPTIOUS is marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections. How to use captious in a sentence. Did you know? Synonym Discussion of Captious.
CAPTIOUS definition: 1. often expressing criticisms about matters that are not important 2. often expressing criticisms…. Learn more.
apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects; faultfinding; difficult to please. Synonyms: testy, picky, niggling, carping. proceeding from a faultfinding or caviling disposition: He could never praise without adding a captious remark.
If someone tends to be hypercritical and finds fault with everything, you can describe that person as captious. Try not to be described as a captious person yourself, however. No one likes a carping individual!
noun. Word origin. C14 (meaning: catching in error): from Latin captiōsus, from captiō a seizing; see caption. Word Frequency. captious in American English. (ˈkæpʃəs ) adjective. 1. made only for the sake of argument or faultfinding. captious criticism. 2. fond of catching others in mistakes; quick to find fault; quibbling; carping.
CAPTIOUS meaning: 1. often expressing criticisms about matters that are not important 2. often expressing criticisms…. Learn more.
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.
