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Glite Dictionary
captiously

captiously

1 9.9
To point out small faults and make unimportant complaints
  • adverb
  • /ˈkæpʃəsli/
  • Formal
: capciosamente
  • The teacher criticized the report captiously, pointing out every small error instead of focusing on the overall quality.

Examples

  • During the debate, he spoke captiously, often interrupting to nitpick the other speaker's arguments.

  • Her captiously critical remarks often made her friends feel discouraged rather than helped.

  • Gadebski lifted his squinting nearsighted eyes from the class journal and captiously looked at Rosa.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

caustically
vscaptiously
1 8.2

In a sharply critical way that can hurt someone's feelings

looks for petty, trivial faults rather than making severe attacks
querulously
vscaptiously
1 9.4

In a complaining way that shows annoyance

seeks out trivial objections rather than simply expressing general complaint
disputatiously
vscaptiously
1 9.9

In a way that often argues with others or challenges their ideas

targets small faults with objections rather than broad argumentativeness
pettily
vscaptiously
1 7.8

Behaving in a mean way about unimportant things

focuses specifically on finding petty faults rather than general nastiness
meanspiritedly
vscaptiously
  • Offensive
8.5

In a mean way that tries to hurt someone

finds and points out minor faults without intending general meanness

Antonyms

uncritically
4 6.2

Without checking carefully whether something is true or fair

How Critical

harshly
45 3.5
captiously
  • Formal
1 9.9
critically
46 4.4
leniently
1 3.4

Surface Forms

captiously positive

Morphology

captiously = captious (transparent) = captious + ly

Productive and regular adverb formation by adding '-ly' to the adjective 'captious', so given knowledge of 'captious' the meaning is predictable.

Etymology

The word captiously comes from the Latin captio, from capere meaning 'to take', and it shares the same root as the English word capture. So, to act captiously is like trying to 'catch' small faults or make tiny objections.