Carping

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Carp \Carp\ (k[aum]rp), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Carped}
     (k[aum]rpt); p. pr. & vb. n. {Carping}.] [OE. carpen to say,
     speak; from Scand. (cf. Icel. karpa to boast), but influenced
     later by L. carpere to pluck, calumniate.]
     1. To talk; to speak; to prattle. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. To find fault; to cavil; to censure words or actions
        without reason or ill-naturedly; -- usually followed by
        at.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Carping and caviling at faults of manner. --Blackw.
                                                    Mag.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And at my actions carp or catch.      --Herbert.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Carping \Carp"ing\ (k[aum]rp"[i^]ng), a.
     Fault-finding; censorious caviling. See {Captious}. --
     {Carp"ing*ly}, adv.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  carping
       adj : quibbling over insignificant details; "caviling pettifoggers
             and quiggling pleaders"-Edmund Burke; "her nagging and
             carping attack"; "thought her editor unnecessarily
             nitpicking"; "a pettifogging lawyer's mind"; "had no
             patience with quibbling critics" [syn: {caviling}, {nitpicking},
              {pettifogging}, {quibbling}]
       n : persistent petty and unjustified criticism [syn: {faultfinding}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  57 Moby Thesaurus words for "carping":
     adverse criticism, animadversion, aspersion, bad notices,
     bad press, blameful, captious, captiousness, cavil, caviling,
     censorious, censoriousness, condemnatory, critical, criticism,
     cynical, damnatory, exception, faultfinding, flak, hairsplitting,
     hit, home thrust, hostile criticism, hypercritical,
     hypercriticalness, hypercriticism, imputation, jawing, knock,
     nagging, niggle, niggling, nit, nit-picking, objurgatory, obloquy,
     overcritical, overcriticalness, pestering, pettifogging,
     priggishness, quibble, quibbling, railing, rap, reflection,
     reproachful, reproachfulness, slam, stricture, swipe,
     taking exception, trichoschistic, trichoschistism, ultracritical,
     upbraiding