quibble — OET

quibble

noun

1 apart from that quibble, it was fine:

minor criticism, trivial objection, trivial complaint, adverse comment, protest, query, argument, exception, moan, grumble, grouse, cavil;

Northern English twine;

informal niggle, gripe, beef, grouch, nitpicking;

archaic pettifogging.

2 I ignored his ridiculous quibbles about interest rates:

evasion, dodge;

(quibbles) avoidance, equivocation, prevarication, hedging, fudging.

verb

1 no one would quibble with the subtitle:

find fault with, raise trivial objections to, complain about, object to, cavil at, carp about;

split hairs, chop logic;

criticize, query, fault, pick, holes in;

informal nitpick;

archaic pettifog.

2 he's always quibbling, so it is difficult to get a straight answer out of him:

be evasive, equivocate, avoid the issue, prevaricate, hedge, fudge, be ambiguous;

informal beat about the bush.

quibble Oxford Dictionary of English