captious

The definition of captious is a statement made for the purpose of creating an argument, or fond of finding the mistakes of others.

(adjective)

An example of a captious comment is when someone tells a man that he does not know how to bar-b-que a good steak.
An example of someone who is captious is a person who always points out the faults of her friend.

See captious in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

Origin: ME capcious < L captiosus < caption

Related Forms:

See captious in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective

Marked by a disposition to find and point out trivial faults: a captious scholar.
Intended to entrap or confuse, as in an argument: a captious question.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English capcious

Origin: , from Old French captieux

Origin: , from Latin captiōsus

Origin: , from captiō, seizure, sophism

Origin: , from captus

Origin: , past participle of capere, to seize; see kap- in Indo-European roots

Related Forms: