logic-chopping
logic-chopping noun: the practice of engaging in excessively subtle, pedantic, or specious argumentation; the use of overly fine or trivial distinctions in reasoning .
Noun
logic-chopping (uncountable)
- The practice of engaging in excessively subtle, pedantic, or specious argumentation; the use of overly fine or trivial distinctions in reasoning .
- Contemptuous logic-chopper "sophist, person who uses subtle distinctions in argument" .1846, Merry England, page 234
- Let the Almighty step in and arrange things in a proper way. No more logic-chopping!1931, Bhagat Singh, Why I am an Atheist
- Synonyms:
- chop logic, casuistry, sophistry, quibbling
Synonyms of logic-chopping
Forms of logic-chopping
| alternative form | logic chopping |
|---|
Origin of logic-chopping
From the phrase chop logic, attested from the early 16th century . The element chop originally meant "to bandy, exchange" (as in chop logic, i.e., to exchange logical arguments) . Later chop was wrongly understood as "to cut, split" .
Questions about logic-chopping
- What does logic-chopping mean?
- Logic-chopping means the practice of engaging in excessively subtle, pedantic, or specious argumentation; the use of overly fine or trivial distinctions in reasoning .
- What part of speech is logic-chopping?
- Logic-chopping is a noun.
Words near logic-chopping in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: logic-chopping (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.
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