fault-finding

noun

the manager tries to get results by fault-finding and nagging:

criticism, captiousness, cavilling, quibbling, niggling, pedantry, hairsplitting;

complaining, grumbling, carping, moaning, whining, bleating;

informal nitpicking, griping, grousing, grouching, bellyaching;

archaic overnice.

▷antonyms praise.

adjective

a fault-finding spectator:

critical, censorious, carping, captious, cavilling, quibbling, niggling;

overcritical, hypercritical, pedantic, overprecise, overexact, over-rigorous, over-strict, hairsplitting, hard/difficult/impossible to please, pettifogging;

Scottish, & Irish pass-remarkable;

informal nitpicking;

British, informal pernickety;

North American, informal persnickety.