1
: marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections
captious critics
a captious rivalry
2
: calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
a captious question
captiously
adverb
captiousness
noun
Did you know?
Captious comes from Latin captio, which refers to a deception or verbal quibble. Arguments labeled captious are likely to "capture" a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed "hypercritical," the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds.
Synonyms
Examples of captious in a Sentence
a captious and cranky eater who's never met a vegetable he didn't hate
Recent Examples on the Web
So much of the new sobriety flex is anathema to the captious alcoholics of 12-step groups.
—
Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 19 Apr. 2022
That a right-wing party traditionally captious about American patriotism did not react heatedly to evidence of Russian interference in US elections is bizarre.
—Darryl Pinckney, The New York Review of Books, 5 Nov. 2020
Berryman was a captious and self-heating complainer, slow to cool.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2020
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Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 19 Apr. 2022
That a right-wing party traditionally captious about American patriotism did not react heatedly to evidence of Russian interference in US elections is bizarre.
—Darryl Pinckney, The New York Review of Books, 5 Nov. 2020
Berryman was a captious and self-heating complainer, slow to cool.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2020
Articles Related to captious
Dictionary Entries Near captious
Cite this Entry
“Captious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captious. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
captious
adjective
cap·tious
ˈkap-shəs 
: quick to find fault especially over small things
captiously
adverb
captiousness
noun
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