hairsplitting
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Hairsplitting — Hair split ting ( t[i^]ng), a. Making excessively fine or trivial distinctions in reasoning; overly subtle. n. The act or practice of making trivial distinctions. [1913 Webster] The ancient hairsplitting technicalities of special pleading.… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
hairsplitting — [n] nitpicking bickering, carping, caviling, faultfinding, perfectionism, pettiness, quibbling, sophistry; concepts 671,706 … New thesaurus
hairsplitting — [her′split΄iŋ] adj., n. making overnice or petty distinctions; quibbling hairsplitter n … English World dictionary
hairsplitting — hairsplitter, n. /hair split ing/, n. 1. the making of unnecessarily fine distinctions. adj. 2. characterized by such distinctions: the hairsplitting arguments of a political debate. [1820 30; HAIR + SPLITTING] Syn. 2. quibbling, niggling,… … Universalium
hairsplitting — hair•split•ting [[t]ˈhɛərˌsplɪt ɪŋ[/t]] n. 1) cvb the making of unnecessarily fine distinctions 2) cvb characterized by such distinctions; quibbling: hairsplitting arguments[/ex] • Etymology: 1820–30 hair′split ter, n … From formal English to slang
hairsplitting — I noun making too fine distinctions of little importance they didn t take his hairsplitting seriously • Syn: ↑word splitting • Hypernyms: ↑differentiation, ↑distinction II adjective … Useful english dictionary
hairsplitting — adjective or noun see hairsplitter … New Collegiate Dictionary
hairsplitting — noun The act of considering or arguing about fine details, or worrying about minutiae … Wiktionary
hairsplitting — Synonyms and related words: adverse criticism, animadversion, aspersion, bad notices, bad press, bickering, boggling, captious, captiousness, carping, cavil, caviling, censoriousness, chicane, chicanery, choplogic, contradistinction, critical,… … Moby Thesaurus
hairsplitting — I (Roget s IV) modif. Syn. unimportant, minute, subtle; see trivial , irrelevant , unimportant . II (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) n. nitpicking, pettiness, quibbling, caviling, fault finding … English dictionary for students
