Also 7 quible. [f. prec. sb.]
† 1. intr. To pun, to play on words. Obs.
a. 1629. T. Goffe, Careless Sheph., Præl. 129. His part has all the wit, For none speaks, carps and Quibbles besides him.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 130. How the Ministers themselves do jingle, quibble, and play the fools with their Texts.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 61, ¶ 2. Nothing is more usual than to see a Hero weeping and quibbling for a dozen Lines together.
1751. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), III. 121. Were I inclined to quibble, I would say [etc.; a pun on air].
2. intr. To argue in a purely verbal way; to evade the real point by a quibble.
1656. Cromwell, Sp., 17 Sept., in Carlyle. Needlessly to mind things that are not essential; to be quibbling about words.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., II. 83. Mazarin proceeded to irritate De Retz … by quibbling upon the words of his bargain.
1854. trans. Lamartine’s Celebr. Char., II. 26. I shall not quibble between the titles of King or Protector.
1864. Bowen, Logic, ix. 293. A satirical disputant quibbling about the meaning of words.
b. To wriggle out of, to trifle or deal unfairly with, by quibbling. rare.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 99/1. The simple warriors … who only learned … from white men how to break their faith, and quibble out of forms and bonds.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxxiv. Sensible that she had been quibbled with.
3. trans. with advbs.: To cheat or bring out of, waste or explain away, by quibbling.
1713. Birch, Guard., No. 36, ¶ 4. Who ever lost his estate in Westminster Hall, but complained that he was quibbled out of his right?
1768. Boyer, Dict. Royal, II. s.v., He endeavoured to quibble away, (to elude,) the sanctity of an oath.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 101. This Act has also, in many cases, been quibbled away.
