MEANING
Inclined to seize on minor faults or raise unreasonable objections.
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Words that belong together
- captious criticism
- captious question
On the page
His captious questions delayed every decision.
She dismissed the captious criticism of a misplaced comma.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- captious
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Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more captious; superlative most captious where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.
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