1
as in complaining
to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant
he spent the entire evening quibbling about the historical inaccuracies in the television series on World War II
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in bickering
to express different opinions about something often angrily
don't quibble over who gets to sit in front
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in nitpicking
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
as in ambiguity
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of quibbling
Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025
When the murder of 100,000 people, many of them women and children, is mentioned or denounced, or when someone dares to use terms such as genocide, ethnocide, ethnic cleansing or similar, most people choose to take issue with the characterization, quibbling over semantics.
—Uriel Kon
september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
Verb
More support tickets, more quibbling, more negotiating.
—Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Noun
Joy Randolph and John Early, as the two Afterlife Coordinators, have a quibbling charisma, but the movie should have done more with all its possible versions of paradise, figuring out how to use them comedically instead of just as easy punchlines.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025
When the murder of 100,000 people, many of them women and children, is mentioned or denounced, or when someone dares to use terms such as genocide, ethnocide, ethnic cleansing or similar, most people choose to take issue with the characterization, quibbling over semantics.
—Uriel Kon
september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quibbling
Verb
-
In my experience as an outfitter, Altra has always been my go-to suggestion whenever a customer walks in complaining about foot problems.—
Alice Bennett,
Travel + Leisure,
11 Sep. 2025
-
Miami is awful, and everyone should’ve known it the minute their players were complaining that their joint practice with the Bears was too tough.—
Jon Greenberg,
New York Times,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Coaches are also bickering about money, a topic that would have felt out of place 10 years ago.—
Eben Novy-Williams,
Sportico.com,
5 Sep. 2025
-
The casting here is perfection itself, with Cumberbatch and Colman bickering back and forth with all the drawing-room style of a new age Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall, or maybe the Burton and Taylor of The Taming of the Shrew with a dab of Virginia Woolf.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
This ambiguity let entrepreneurs like Sanders move into the market without immediate legal repercussions.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
17 Sep. 2025
-
Resilience During Uncertainty – AI disruption creates stress and ambiguity; addressing our self-care needs helps leaders sustain performance and avoid burnout.—
Tony Gambill,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Venus in Virgo loves precision, but be careful not to slide into scarcity thinking or nitpicking your progress.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
14 Sep. 2025
-
That might seem like nitpicking, except this is a franchise that has had the luxury of starting-caliber linemen as reserves.—
Zach Berman,
New York Times,
17 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has urged Senate Democrats to support the short-term measure, arguing the bill is a clean extension of funding.—
John Parkinson,
ABC News,
18 Sep. 2025
-
Many conservative stalwarts cheered Kimmel's shelving, arguing that his recent monologue misled the American public about Kirk’s assassination by mischaracterizing the political beliefs of Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the homicide.—
Phillip M. Bailey,
USA Today,
18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
His celebration was subtle yet suave, a drop of his bat with a flick of his wrist.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
13 Sep. 2025
-
This is clearly a quick screen and may not pick up more subtle issues.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The vessel was operating in international waters but that added to the murkiness of the legal justification.—
Emily Goodin,
Miami Herald,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Many technological challenges abound in the murkiness of natural language chatting.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
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With five blades sandwiched between two moisturizing bars, this razor speeds up the entire process (no fussing around with shaving cream), nourishing dry skin and making nicks a rare occurrence.—
Sophia Panych,
Allure,
16 Sep. 2025
-
This was the mid 1980s and tandem skydiving hadn’t been popularized yet, so his father, Roger, adjusted accordingly by stuffing carpet padding into the leg pads to stop him from fussing.—
Angelina Liu,
People.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Quibbling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quibbling. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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