in AM, use 美国英语用 caviling, caviled
- VERB 挑剔;吹毛求疵
If you say that someone cavils at something, you mean that they make criticisms of it that you think are unimportant or unnecessary.
- Let us not cavil too much...
我们就别太挑剔了。 - I don't think this is the time to cavil at the wording of the report.
我觉得现在还不是对报告的措辞较真的时候。 - Cavil is also a noun.
- These cavils aside, most of the essays are very good indeed.
这些吹毛求疵的批评暂且不论,多数论文的确是很不错的。