| English Dictionary |
CAPTIOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Dictionary entry overview: What does captious mean?
• CAPTIOUS (adjective)
The adjective CAPTIOUS has 1 sense:
1. tending to find and call attention to faults
Familiarity information: CAPTIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Tending to find and call attention to faults
Synonyms:
captious; faultfinding
Context example:
an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor
Similar:
critical (marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws)
Derivation:
caption (taking exception; especially a quibble based on a captious argument)
Context examples
The consciousness of having done amiss, had exposed her to a thousand inquietudes, and made her captious and irritable to a degree that must have been—that had been—hard for him to bear.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I was rather disappointed that I did not hear from her again speedily; but I made excuses for her, and was too busy, and—may I add? —too cheerful in my views to be captious.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
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