- caviling, carping, nitpicking, pettifogging, quibbling - 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"
Antonym: uncritical (indirect, via critical)