| 单词 | captious |
| 释义 | captious (once / 8063 pages) adj If someone tends to be hypercritical and find fault with everything, you can describe that person as captious. Try not to be described as a captious person yourself, however. No one likes a carping individual! Captious comes from the Middle French word captieux, which is from the Latin word captiosus meaning fallacious or deceiving. This is, in fact, another meaning for the adjective captious, something is calculated to confuse or deceive — such as a captious explanation of the facts. When a person is described as captious, the sense is usually of nitpicking at faults or raising petty objections. It is usually used to imply a permanent character or personality flaw, as opposed to a momentary lapse in understanding. WORD FAMILYcaptious: captiously+/caption: captioned, captioning, captions, captious USAGE EXAMPLESShe can be a captious and irritable mother-in-law to Ruth, and you feel the friction between the dominating women in Walter’s life. New York Times(Apr 04, 2014) In Harrison’s words, “she was born mean, captious, sullen, with occasional small dirty windows of charm.” Seattle Times(Dec 18, 2013) Then suddenly she had become captious and uncertain. Hocking, Silas K. (Silas Kitto), A Gamble with Life(2012) adj tending to find and call attention to faults a captious pedant Syn faultfinding critical marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws |
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