How to use quibble in a sentence
12 example sentences · noun, verb
Quibble means an argument or objection based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint. Example: “He harped on his quibble about how the dark red paint should be described as carmine rather than burgundy.”
Examples of quibble by meaning
nounAn argument or objection based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint.
- He harped on his quibble about how the dark red paint should be described as carmine rather than burgundy.
- Essentially, we want a commitment to no-quibble refunds, without admin fees, if people who have already paid decide not to travel because of the virus.2020 March 25, “Network News: Passengers offered refunds or switched fares”, in Rail, page 7
verbTo complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.
- They are constantly quibbling over insignificant details.
- “We'll not quibble about words,” said he.1904 May, Winston Churchill, chapter VI, in The Crossing, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, book...
- He has quibbled with the number of bird references in the company’s internal team names and products.2023 July 24, Ryan Mac, Tiffany Hsu, “From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
verbTo contest, especially some trivial issue in a petty manner.
- The customer quibbled the bill.
More sentences with quibble
- Another personal quibble I had: the use of the q-slur as a blanket term.2019 January 12, Review by user “charlotte,”, “Anger Is a Gift”, in Goodreads. From the entry Q-slur
- This reviewer too is on the quibbly side, with four quibbles.1992: Martin Bronfenbrenner, review of The Japanese Economy by Takatoshi Ito, in the Southern Economic Journal, vol. 59, no. 2, p. 324. From the entry quibbly
- I have a minor quibble with Gleason’s decision to throw Lefty Williams in Game Eight with the Series in the balance.2009, Michael T. Lynch, Jr., It Ain’t So: A Might-Have-Been History of the White Sox in 1919 and Beyond, →ISBN, page 63. From the entry throw
- A remarkable performance, both piece by piece and all in all, but with items for quibbly reviewers to quibble about.1992: Martin Bronfenbrenner, review of The Japanese Economy by Takatoshi Ito, in the Southern Economic Journal, vol. 59, no. 2, p. 324. From the entry quibbly
- There was so much pushing and quibbling over details that by the time the barrio had organized itself to set out for Salug to investigate, dusk had already fallen.2008, Resil B. Mojares, “Beast in the Fields”, in Gémino H. Abad, editor, Upon Our Own Ground: Filipino short stories in English: 1956 to…. From the entry barrio
- Guess they thought we would crawfish, But there was never a word or a quibble ; When they offered us freights, among others, We said "Let 'em come, ish-ka-bibble."1913, The Santa Fe Magazine - Volume 8, page 74. From the entry ish ka bibble
Meaning of quibble
- noun An argument or objection based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint.
- noun A pun.
- verb To complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.
Questions about quibble in a sentence
- How do you use quibble in a sentence?
- Quibble is used as a noun and verb. For example: “He harped on his quibble about how the dark red paint should be described as carmine rather than burgundy.”
- What is a short sentence with quibble?
- “The customer quibbled the bill.”
- What does quibble mean?
- Quibble means an argument or objection based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: quibble (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use quibble in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/quibble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.