Without personal const.: to censure, find fault with, carp at.

trans. To speak sharply or injuriously against; to calumniate (cf. backbite, v.); to carp at. intr. To find fault sharply or severely, speak…

figurative. to gnap at, to snap at, find fault with; also, to clip (words) in speaking.

transitive. To find fault with, reprehend, take exception to. Obsolete.

transitive. To object to or find fault with captiously.

Const. at.

intransitive. To find fault with, nag at, criticize; to taunt, tease. Now chiefly regional.

transitive. To make or form (a hole, flaw, etc.) by piercing or probing with a pointed instrument. to pick a hole (also holes) in (originally…

figurative. intransitive. With at: to find fault with a specified person or thing. Chiefly Scottish in later use.

figurative. To carp at; to criticize adversely. Obsolete.

to peck at. intransitive. figurative. To carp, object to, nag at; (also) to bully, to pick on.

intransitive. To gird at something.

transitive. To pluck; to strip of feathers, wool, etc. Frequently figurative: to rob or plunder, to fleece; (also) to scold.

intransitive. colloquial. To unsettle by making fun of, finding fault with, etc.; to jeer at or taunt; to criticize; to make nervous or upset. Also…

transitive. To criticize adversely, cry down, find fault with, ‘peck at’, ‘pull to pieces’. slang or stable-talk, whence colloquial. Also absol.

transitive. colloquial (originally U.S.). Originally: †to show up, contradict (obsolete). Now: to call to account; to find fault with, criticize…

To speak ill or slightingly of, disparage, find fault with, criticize captiously. Also intransitive and absol. colloquial (originally U.S.).

intransitive and transitive. To find fault (with), to nag.

intransitive. To criticize or complain a great deal. Frequently with about.

colloquial. to pick nits: = nitpick, v.