Cavil

Definition: Cavil

Cavil

Verb

1. Raise trivial objections.

Date "cavil" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Mining	A. To draw lots at stated periods--by miners to determine the places in which they will work for the following period b. A type of heavy sledge with one blunt and one pointed end. Used forrough shaping stone at a quarry. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Cavil

Synonyms: carp (v), chicane (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Disapprobation	Scoff at, point at; twit, taunt; (disrespect); sneer at; (despise); satirize, lampoon; defame; (detract); depreciate, find fault with, criticize, cut up; pull to pieces, pick to pieces; take exception; cavil; peck at, nibble at, carp at; be censorious; Adjective: pick holes, pick a hole, pick a hole in one's coat; make a fuss about.
	Satire; sneer; (contempt); taunt; (disrespect); cavil, carping, censoriousness; hypercriticism; (fastidiousness).
Dissent	Verb: dissent, demur; call in question; (doubt); differ in opinion, disagree; say no; refuse assent, refuse to admit; cavil, protest, raise one's voice against, repudiate; contradict; (deny).
Reasoning,	Pervert, quibble; equivocate, mystify, evade, elude; gloss over, varnish; misteach; mislead; (error); cavil, refine, subtilize, split hairs; misrepresent; (lie).
Unbelief Doubt	Throw doubt upon, raise a question; bring in, call in question; question, challenge, dispute; deny; cavil; cause a doubt, raise a doubt, start a doubt, suggest a doubt, awake a doubt, make suspicion; ergotize.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Cavil

English words defined with "cavil": Caviled, Cavilled, Cavilling, Cavillous, Contradictions ♦ Findfaulting. (references)

Specialty definitions using "cavil": Incomplete Infinitive. (references)

Etymologies containing "cavil": Findfaulting. (references)

Author	Quotation
Shakespeare	I will give thrice so much land to any well-deserving friend; but in the way of bargain, mark me. I will cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Cavil" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 63.64% of the time. "Cavil" is used about 11 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	63.64%	7	133,076
Lexical Verb (base form)	18.18%	2	245,945
Noun (singular)	18.18%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	11	N/A

Expressions using "cavil": beyond cavil ♦ cavil at. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "cavil"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		qarje (complaint, cry, grumble, kick, lament, mourning, plaint, snivel), qaravitje (nagging, petulance, petulancy, snivel, whimper), qahem (beef, bitch, complain, crab, grouse, repine, yammer), nxjerr bishta, ankohem (beef, bind, complain, grouse, growl, moan, squawk, whine, yammer), ankim (complaint, grievance, nagging, peeve, pet, whine). (various references)

Arabic		‏إعتراض تافه, ‏إثارة الإعتراضات التافهة, ‏أثار إعتراضات تافهة. (various references)

Bulgarian		несериозно възражение, заяждане (jam, jamming, nag), заяждам се (altercate, carp, nibble, niggle, quibble), правя дребнави възражения. (various references)

Czech		rýt (cut, dig, nuzzle), hledat na èem. (various references)

Farsi		عیب جوءی کردن (Carp, Impugn), عیب جوءی (Reproach), خرده گیری کردن , خرده گیری . (various references)

French		chicaner (carp at), chicane, ergoter, ergotage. (various references)

German		kritteln (find fault, niggle, niggling, quibble), deuteln (quibble). (various references)

Greek		μικρολογώ (higgle, niggle, trifle), μεμψιμοιρώ (grumble), λεπτολογώ (split hairs), λεπτολογία (fastidiousness, finicalness, minuteness, nicety, particularity, preciosity, punctiliousness, squeamishness, word splitting). (various references)

Hungarian		szõrszálhasogatás (casuistry, hairsplitting), szõröz. (various references)

Indonesian		mengecam (inveigh). (various references)

Italian		cavillo (crazing, hair cracks, quibble), cavillare (carp, chicane, haggle, niggle, quarrel, quibble). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		言葉尻�'捉える (to cavil at a person's words). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		�"とばじり�'とらえる (to cavil at a person's words). (various references)

Manx		khennoughey (carp, carping). (various references)

Pig Latin		avilcay

Portuguese		cavilar, cavilação, sofisma (chicanery, fallacy, fetch, quibble, quiddity, quip, quirk, sophism, sophistry), argumentar com sofismas. (various references)

Romanian		cicãli (badger, Bicker, carp, Chevy, nag, nagnag, tease), cicãlealã (fault finding, nag, tease, teasing), face şicane, şicanã (chicanery). (various references)

Russian		кляузничать, кляуза (closure), придирка (chicane), придираться (carp, find fault, nag, rail, upbraid). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		cepidlačiti (split hairs), cepidlačenje (hairsplitting, logomachy, niceties, pedantry, quibble), sitničariti (brabble, philistinize, sell sundries, split hairs). (various references)

Spanish		reparo (criticism, demur, indemnity, objection, observation, remark, repair, reproof), reparar (fill, fix, flicker, flicker range, make good, patch up, recondition, repair, retrieve, undo, voltage fluctuation). (various references)

Swedish		kitslig (censorious, teasing). (various references)

Thai		หาข้อผิ�"พลา�"เล็กๆ น้อยๆ. (various references)

Turkish		kusur bulmak (arraign, carp, cast reflection on smb., crab, criticize, fault, find fault, pick at, pick holes in, pick on, reflect on, reflect upon, reprehend), kusur (blame, blemish, culpability, defalcation, default, defect, deficiency, demerit, failing, failure, fault, flaw, freckle, gaff, imperfection, inaccuracy, infirmity, remissness, scar, shortcoming, stigma, taint, vice), itiraz (but, challenge, contest, contradiction, demur, deprecation, disapproval, expostulation, objection, outcry, protest, protestation, remonstrance), bahane aramak, bahane (allegation, blind, cloak, cop out, cover, evasion, excuse, guise, peg, plea, pretence, pretext, putoff, rise, salvo, shift, stalking horse, subterfuge, veil), şikâyetçi olmak (complain, kick up a stink, make a complaint about, raise a stink, repine). (various references)

Ukranian		уїдливість (acridity, acrimony, caustic, causticity, jibe, mordacity, taunt), чіплятися (accost, arraign, badger, bully, carp, chicane, clamber, cling, nag, upbraid, worry), крутійство (chicane, chicanery, dodgery, pettifoggery), висувати безпідставні заперечення, вишукувати недоліки (carp), займатися крутійством (chicane), присікуватися (carp), причіпка (arraignment, caption, chicane, chicanery, nag, nagging, nip), причепливість (fault finding, nicety). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự gây chuyện cãi nhau vặt, sự cãi vặt, sự cãi bướng. (various references)

Welsh		geirddadl (quibble). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	cavillari. (various references)
Middle French	1400-1600	caviller. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "cavil": caviled, caviler, cavilers, caviling, cavilled, caviller, cavillers, cavilling, cavils. (additional references)
	Words ending with "cavil": outcavil. (additional references)
	Words containing "cavil": outcaviled, outcaviling, outcavilled, outcavilling, outcavils. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Cavil" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Accval, acil, avil, avyl, cail, caiv, cakile, Calil, Capili, caril, cavale, Cavali, Cavall, cavek, cavel, cavell, cavi, cavia, cavid, cavie, cavill, cavis, cavit, Cavlin, cavo, Cavok, cavu, Cemil, cenil, Cevik, chayil, cicil, cicvil, civel, civi, civia, civili, civill, clavi, clviii, coval, Covall, covil, cravil, cvi, cvii, cviii, cxvii, Davill, eavil, Gavril, havil, kaval, kavel, Pavil, scavi, xcvi. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: clavi.
	Words within the letters "a-c-i-l-v"
	-1 letter: laic, vail, vial.
	-2 letters: ail, lac, lav, vac, via.
	-3 letters: ai, al, la, li.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-i-l-v"
	+1 letter: cavils, clivia.
	+2 letters: calving, caviled, caviler, clavier, clivias, valeric, vatical, vesical, vicarly, vicinal, victual, vincula, vocalic, voltaic.
	+3 letters: acervuli, actively, archival, avicular, calvaria, carnival, cavalier, cavelike, cavilers, caviling, cavilled, caviller, cervical, chivalry, civilian, clavicle, claviers, cleaving, colluvia, corrival, cultivar, galvanic, locative, outcavil, ovicidal, oviducal, salvific, silvical, sylvatic, univocal, vaccinal, valencia, valiance, valiancy, vandalic, vanillic, vertical, vesicula, viatical, vicarial, victuals, villatic, visceral, vocalics, vocalise, vocalism, vocalist, vocality, vocalize, volcanic, vortical, vulcanic.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.