dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

cavil
in a sentence

show 33 more with this conextual meaning
  • The count appeared, dressed with the greatest simplicity, but the most fastidious dandy could have found nothing to cavil at in his toilet.†   (source)
  • Her eyes, a deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eyebrows, had never been denied their praise; but the skin, which she had been used to cavil at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no fuller bloom.†   (source)
  • Miss Ophelia felt rather disposed to cavil at this picture, and was laying down her knitting to begin, but St. Clare stopped her.†   (source)
  • It is to attack the sceptre in the name of the throne, and the mitre in the name of the attar; it is to ill-treat the thing which one is dragging, it is to kick over the traces; it is to cavil at the fagot on the score of the amount of cooking received by heretics; it is to reproach the idol with its small amount of idolatry; it is to insult through excess of respect; it is to discover that the Pope is not sufficiently papish, that the King is not sufficiently royal, and that the night has too much light; it is to be discontented wit†   (source)
  • Mr. Glegg's unmistakable kind-heartedness was shown in this, that it pained him more to see his wife at variance with others,—even with Dolly, the servant,—than to be in a state of cavil with her himself; and the quarrel between her and Mr. Tulliver vexed him so much that it quite nullified the pleasure he would otherwise have had in the state of his early cabbages, as he walked in his garden before breakfast the next morning.†   (source)
  • DOGMATIST
    I'll not be led by any lure
    Of doubts or critic-cavils:
    The Devil must be something, sure,—
    Or how should there be devils?†   (source)
  • You will tell me, I know, that this may or may NOT have happened; but I will listen to no cavil, unless you can point out any other method of understanding the affair as satisfactory at this.†   (source)
  • The Reflexion is awful—and in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavillings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of a world.†   (source)
  • I actually reached a point where I said to myself, right out loud, like a lunatic, If I hear just one more picky, cavilling, unconstructive word out of you, Franny Glass, you and I are finished—but finished.†   (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ING".
  • They cavilled about sharing the twenty guineas.†   (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans do not repeat the "L" prior to adding the "ED".
  • "What did we say Simpson's was?" asked Morel; and the butties cavilled for a minute over the dayman's earnings.†   (source)
  • For weeks he would lounge around the taverns of the county, in a state of perfect idleness, or doing small jobs for his liquor and his meals, and cavilling with applicants about the prices of his labor; frequently preferring idleness to an abatement of a little of his independence, or a cent in his wages.†   (source)
  • Now that the refusal came, and that in terms so decided as to put all cavilling out of the question; if not absolutely dumbfounded, he was so much mortified and surprised as to feel no wish to attempt to change her resolution.†   (source)
  • Indeed, indeed, sir, no words of mine can express half of what I have felt "—the youth paused a moment, as if suddenly recollecting that he was overstepping prescribed limits, and concluded with a good deal of embarrassment—" what I have felt at this danger to Miss—Grant, and—and your daughter, sir," But the heart of Marmaduke was too much softened to admit his cavilling at trifles, and, without regarding the confusion of the other, he replied: "I thank thee, thank thee, Oliver; as thou sayest, it is almost too horrid to be remembered.†   (source)
  • Next for thy cavilling Of wrath at mine alliance with a king, Here thou shalt see I both was wise, and free From touch of passion, and a friend to thee Most potent, and my children ...Nay, be still !†   (source)
  • The Writer of this, is one of those few, who never dishonours religion either by ridiculing, or cavilling at any denomination whatsoever.†   (source)
  • "Cavilling, not gravelling," said Don Quixote, "thou prevaricator of honest language, God confound thee!"†   (source)
  • The answer is, that it could only have been done for greater caution, and to guard against all cavilling refinements in those who might hereafter feel a disposition to curtail and evade the legitimate authorities of the Union.†   (source)
  • If it should be said that defects in the State constitutions furnish no apology for those which are to be found in the plan proposed, I answer, that as the former have never been thought chargeable with inattention to the security of liberty, where the imputations thrown on the latter can be shown to be applicable to them also, the presumption is that they are rather the cavilling refinements of a predetermined opposition, than the well-founded inferences of a candid research after truth.†   (source)
  • Where are your cavils about the soul now?†   (source)
  • So were they all in their blind fancy, Mr Cavil and Mr Sometimes Godly, Mr Ape Swillale, Mr False Franklin, Mr Dainty Dixon, Young Boasthard and Mr Cautious Calmer.†   (source)
  • O the joy of my soul leaning pois'd on itself, receiving identity through
    materials and loving them, observing characters and absorbing them,
    My soul vibrated back to me from them, from sight, hearing, touch,
    reason, articulation, comparison, memory, and the like,
    The real life of my senses and flesh transcending my senses and flesh,
    My body done with materials, my sight done with my material eyes,
    Proved to me this day beyond cavil that it is not my material eyes
    which finally see,
    Nor my material body which finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts,
    embraces, procreates.†   (source)
  • 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.†   (source)
  • That's but a cavil; he is old, I young.†   (source)
  • They ought not to have wandered into inflammatory declamations and unmeaning cavils about the extent of the powers.†   (source)
  • I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land To any well-deserving friend; But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.†   (source)
  • Inexplicable
    Thy justice seems; yet to say truth, too late
    I thus contest; then should have been refused
    Those terms whatever, when they were proposed:
    Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good,
    Then cavil the conditions?†   (source)
  • After some little cavil at the word 'sincere,' and asking him if I had ever given him any answers which were not sincere, I promised him I would.†   (source)
  • Nor do I fear that my sensible reader, though most luxurious in his taste, will start, cavil, or be offended, because I have named but one article.†   (source)
  • I have been surprized that Horace should cavil at this art in Homer; but indeed he contradicts himself in the very next line: Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus;
    Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum.†   (source)
  • It might even have occurred to them, that where a disposition to cavil prevailed, their neglect to execute the degree of power vested in them, and still more their recommendation of any measure whatever, not warranted by their commission, would not less excite animadversion, than a recommendation at once of a measure fully commensurate to the national exigencies.†   (source)
  • Whatever it was, it satisfied the landlord for his bodily hurt; but he lamented he had not known before how little the lady valued her money; "For to be sure," says he, "one might have charged every article double, and she would have made no cavil at the reckoning."†   (source)
  • Except some cavils about the power of convening EITHER house of the legislature, and that of receiving ambassadors, no objection has been made to this class of authorities; nor could they possibly admit of any.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)