Dictionary

quibbly en · ADJ

Etymology

From quibble + -y.

Meanings

1. Fussy; quibbling.
   • The voice sounded mellow and reasonable, but the man was as quibbly and higgly a guy as you could find. 1956, Edward Hoagland, Cat Man, page 134:
   • considering the docility of the high-bred Arab horse and intractableness of the quibly, roughly broken prairie or Pampas horse 1859, John Solomon Rarey, The Art of Taming Horses, page 15:
   • A remarkable performance, both piece by piece and all in all, but with items for quibbly reviewers to quibble about. This reviewer too is on the quibbly side, with four quibbles. 1992: Martin Bronfenbrenner, review of The Japanese Economy by Takatoshi Ito, in the Southern Economic Journal, vol. 59, no. 2, p. 324
   • We give notice that thousands of our most complacently puttering, most quibbly and fuddly politicians are going to be taken out by the people, lifted up by the people, and dropped kindly but firmly over the edge of the world. 1920, Gerald Stanley Lee, The Ghost in the White House, page xv:
   • the Quaker said, “I tell thee what, Humphry, thou art the most quibbly hand at a dispute I ever met with in my life.” 1926, Charles Robert Gibson, Heroes of the Scientific World, page 229:
2. Involving quibbles.
   • The delineation of civilizations is usually unsatisfactory, often esoteric and sometimes rather quibbly 1995, Matthew Melko, “The Nature of Civilizations”, in Stephen K. Sanderson, editor, Civilizations and World Systems, page 33:
   • This reviewer’s doubts can be grouped under six heads, of which the econometric and the theoretical are the most quibbly. 1974: Martin Bronfenbrenner, review of Japan’s Trade Liberalization in the 1960’s by Alfred K. Ho, in the Southern Economic Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, p. 683
   • Of course, the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Attorney General made a rather clever and—if he will excuse me for saying so—a rather quibbly defence. 1887, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Thomas Curson Hansard, page 972:
3. Petty; trifling.
   • If it is true that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it is equally true that the beginning of that road is usually paved with what are called quibbly incidents. The big ones come later when the direction is clear 1990, Floyd W. Matson, Walking Alone and Marching Together, page 474:

Forms