hair-splitting
2
7.7
- noun
- /ˈhɛrˌsplɪtɪŋ/
- Informal
- They engaged in hair-splitting arguments that made it difficult to reach a consensus.
Examples
-
In debates, hair-splitting often distracts from the main issue at hand.
-
This is exactly the sort of semantic hair-splitting.
Blog text (27) -
Well, that sounds like hair-splitting to me!
Blog text (26) -
But enough of this hair-splitting business.
Blog text (20) -
Rothstein has wasted a huge amount of time and hair-splitting on the wrong topic.
Blog text (8) -
"Players on both sides of the aisle engage in this type of hair-splitting," Beckel said.
Blog text (29) -
Most Americans could not give a whit for all of this sectarian hair-splitting.
Blog text (1) -
There is a tendency among some people to regard court cases of this sort as petty hair-splitting on small matters and as work that distracts activists from more pressing concerns.
Academic text (2005) -
No more depositional battles, jurisdictional confrontations, or hair-splitting debates about responsibility for poisoning what was left of the livable earth.
Fiction book (1997) -
The professor criticized the students for their hair-splitting over minor details in their papers.
Synonyms
2
8.4
Paying too much attention to small rules and details to show you know a lot
1
8.2
Paying too much attention to small unimportant details in a debate
1
9.9
Arguing about small unimportant details that wastes time and annoys people
1
9.9
A way of arguing that focuses on small unimportant differences and confuses the issue
1
9.6
Being too focused on small rules and details in a way that annoys people
Arguing about small differences in meaning instead of the main point
Antonyms
How Detailed
- Informal
2
7.7
- Specialized
133
4.2
1
6.0
64
2.7
69
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hair-splitting comes from the picture of trying to split a single hair in two, so it suggests making 'very small' divisions. So, hair-splitting means arguing about tiny, unimportant differences instead of the main point.