Word.ws English Dictionary

cavil

UK/ˈkæv.əl/

cavil verb: to criticise for petty or frivolous reasons.

Verb

cavil (third-person singular simple present cavils, present participle (US) caviling or (UK) cavilling, simple past and past participle (US) caviled or (UK) cavilled)

  1. (intransitive) To criticise for petty or frivolous reasons.
    • 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • The provision, then, which we have here made is no other than Human Nature. 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.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    be hypercritical, nitpick, pettifog, split hairs

Noun

cavil (plural cavils)

  1. A petty or trivial objection or criticism.
    • It is not worth while to spend your time in arguing against a cavil, but make him feel he is committing a sin to plead it, and thus enlist his conscience on your side.1835, Charles G. Finney, Lectures on revivals of religion

cavil meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

cavil in Urdu

شاخسانہ

cavil in Malayalam

കഴമ്പില്ലാത്ത എതിർപ്പ്, കുറ്റം പറയുക

cavil in Kannada

ಬೇಡದ ಅಡ್ಡಿ, ವಿತಂಡ, ವಿತಂಡೆ

Examples of cavil in a sentence

  • A man finds little trouble in obtaining what he wants, if he never cavils at the price asked, and is willing to pay in advance.1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
  • Far it be from me, however, to cavil at the honour of being quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary!1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 368:

Synonyms of cavil

Forms of cavil

Verb
third-person singular presentcavils
present participle UScaviling
present participle UKcavilling
past participle UScaviled
past UScaviled
past participle UKcavilled
past UKcavilled
alternative formcavel
alternative formcavell
Noun
pluralcavils

Origin of cavil

From Old French caviller (“mock, jest, rail”), from Latin cavillor (“jeer, mock, satirise, reason captiously”), from cavilla (“jeering, raillery, scoffing”); cognate with Italian cavillare, Portuguese cavillar, and Spanish cavilar; nominal usage developed within English from the original verbal usage.

Words formed from cavil

Words that rhyme with cavil

Questions about cavil

What does cavil mean?
Cavil means to criticise for petty or frivolous reasons.
What is cavil in Urdu?
Cavil in Urdu is شاخسانہ. See Cavil meaning in Urdu.
How do you use cavil in a sentence?
A man finds little trouble in obtaining what he wants, if he never cavils at the price asked, and is willing to pay in advance.
What part of speech is cavil?
Cavil can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce cavil?
Cavil is pronounced /ˈkæv.əl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of cavil?
The past tense of cavil is caviled.

Words near cavil in the dictionary

  1. cavies
  2. caviid
  3. caviids
  4. caviine
  5. caviines
  6. cavil
  7. cavilation
  8. cavilations
  9. caviled
  10. caviler
  11. cavilers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cavil (page history and authors); cavil (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cavil (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cavil (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cavil.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cavil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cavil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.