[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the verb to CAVIL; captious objection or frivolous fault-finding.
1565–78. Cooper, Thesaurus, Captio in verbis, captious cavilling in wordes.
1656. Artif. Handsomeness, 66. These … fall to cavillings and menacings.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 361. Bottomless cavillings and questionings about written laws.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. xiii. 751. It is not such petty cavilling which can destroy an European reputation.
