| 释义 |
nitpicker|ˈnɪtpɪkə(r)|
Also nit-picker.
[f. nit n. + picker1.]
A pedantic critic; one who searches for and over-emphasizes trivial errors. Hence ˈnitpicking, nit-picking vbl. n. and ppl. a. Hence (as back formations) ˈnitpick v. and n.
1951Collier's 24 Nov. 67/1 Two long-time Pentagon stand-bys are fly-speckers and nit-pickers. The first of these nouns refers to people whose sole occupation seems to be studying papers in the hope of finding flaws in the writing, rather than making any effort to improve the thought or meaning; nit-pickers are those who quarrel with trivialities of expression and meaning, but who usually end up without making concrete or justified suggestions for improvement. 1956Time 16 Jan. 17 The members of the Cabinet commented on the draft of the message, then commented upon one another's comments. ‘No nit-picking,’ Vice President Nixon adjured his colleagues, but the Cabinet eventually sent out to the President a file of verbatim reaction that piled 1½ inches high. 1959Washington Post 3 July A 12/2 When the nit⁓pickers and the parliamentary horse-traders had finished with it, the program had shrunk to much smaller proportions. 1961Flight LXXX. 525 Contributions have not sought to attract the jackdaws nor the ‘nitpickers’. 1962W. Schirra in Into Orbit 34 We all tried to avoid nit-picking with each other on these things. 1964New Statesman 14 Feb. 261/3 Some of the..modern buildings..which provide a real feast for art-historical nit-pickers. 1968Listener 4 July 22/1 Knox's essay was a stylistic send-up of German apparatus criticus nit⁓picking in the Bible and the classics. 1970P. St. Pierre Chilcotin Holiday 93 Let us bring it down to the point where no nitpicking critic can disagree. 1970New Scientist 10 Sept. 542/1 If I am giving an impression of nit-picking, I can only apologise. 1971‘D. Shannon’ Ringer (1972) vi. 108 Don't nitpick. 1972Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Feb. 179/1 A savage, malicious, and nitpicking attack on Malone's great Variorum edition of 1790. 1972Guardian 10 June 10/2 A nit-picking approach would be dangerous and impractical. 1972N.Y. Times 19 Dec. 65/7 Every niggling detail is carefully nitpicked. 1973Times 28 Nov. 4 Nit-picking is an occupational activity of MPs. 1974Sat. Even. Post Jan.–Feb. 32/3 Protect yourself and your leaders from preoccupation with the trivial and the picayune: let people control their own time; don't nitpick procedures. 1975Time Out 1 Aug. 3/3, I don't argue about the inaccuracies (though they're so nit-picking as to infer that everything about the film must be defended at all costs). 1975Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. 922/4 Professor Laqueur's nitpicks force me to comment. |