Word Meanings - HAIRSPLITTING - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Making excessively nice or trivial distinctions in reasoning; subtle. -- n.

Related words: (words related to HAIRSPLITTING)

• MAKE AND BREAK
  Any apparatus for making and breaking an electric circuit; a circuit breaker.
• MAKING-IRON
  A tool somewhat like a chisel with a groove in it, used by calkers of ships to finish the seams after the oakum has been driven in.
• REASONING
  1. The act or process of adducing a reason or reasons; manner of presenting one's reasons. 2. That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when arranged and developed; course of argument. His reasoning was sufficiently profound. Macaulay.
• SUBTLE
  subtil, OF. soutil, later subtil, F. subtil, L. subtilis; probably, originally, woven fine, and fr. sub under + tela a web, fr. texere to 1. Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. "A subtle
• REASONLESS
  1. Destitute of reason; as, a reasonless man or mind. Shak. 2. Void of reason; not warranted or supported by reason; unreasonable. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak.
• REASONABLY
  1. In a reasonable manner. 2. Moderately; tolerably. "Reasonably perfect in the language." Holder.
• TRIVIALNESS
  Quality or state of being trivial.
• REASONIST
  A rationalist. Such persons are now commonly called "reasonists" and "rationalists," to distinguish them from true reasoners and rational inquirers. Waterland.
• MAKED
  Made. Chaucer.
• MAKE-UP
  The way in which the parts of anything are put together; often, the way in which an actor is dressed, painted, etc., in personating a character. The unthinking masses are necessarily teleological in their mental make-up. L. F. Ward.
• MAKESHIFT
  That with which one makes shift; a temporary expedient. James Mill. I am not a model clergyman, only a decent makeshift. G. Eliot.
• TRIVIALITY
  1. The quality or state of being trivial; trivialness. 2. That which is trivial; a trifle. The philosophy of our times does not expend itself in furious discussions on mere scholastic trivialities. Lyon Playfair.
• REASONABLE
  1. Having the faculty of reason; endued with reason; rational; as, a reasonable being. 2. Governed by reason; being under influence of reason; thinking, speaking or acting rationally, or according to the dictates of reason; agreeable to reason;
• REASONABLENESS
  Quality of being reasonable.
• MAKEWEIGHT
  That which is thrown into a scale to make weight; something of little account added to supply a deficiency or fill a gap.
• TRIVIAL
  One of the three liberal arts forming the trivium. Skelton. Wood.
• MAKE-BELIEVE
  A feigning to believe, as in the play of children; a mere pretense; a fiction; an invention. "Childlike make-believe." Tylor. To forswear self-delusion and make-believe. M. Arnold.
• MAKARON
  See 2
• MAKING-UP
  1. The act of bringing spirits to a certain degree of strength, called proof. 2. The act of becoming reconciled or friendly.
• REASON
  1. To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend. When they are clearly discovered, well digested, and well reasoned in every part, there is
• MANTUAMAKER
  One who makes dresses, cloaks, etc., for women; a dressmaker.
• BOOTMAKER
  One who makes boots. -- Boot"mak`ing, n.
• BRICKMAKER
  One whose occupation is to make bricks. -- Brick"mak*ing, n.
• SAILMAKER
  One whose occupation is to make or repair sails. -- Sail"mak`ing, n.
• WIDOW-MAKER
  One who makes widows by destroying husbands. Shak.
• MATCHMAKER
  1. One who makes matches for burning or kinding. 2. One who tries to bring about marriages.
• HAYMAKING
  The operation or work of cutting grass and curing it for hay.
• UNREASONABLE
  Not reasonable; irrational; immoderate; exorbitant. -- Un*rea"son*a*ble*ness, n. -- Un*rea"son*a*bly, adv.
• MERRYMAKING
  Making or producing mirth; convivial; jolly.
• GLASS MAKER; GLASSMAKER
  One who makes, or manufactures, glass. -- Glass" mak`ing, or Glass"mak`ing, n.
• VLISSMAKI
  The diadem indris. See Indris.
• SUPERSUBTLE
  To subtle. Shak.
• TREASONABLE
  Pertaining to treason; consisting of treason; involving the crime of treason, or partaking of its guilt. Most men's heads had been intoxicated with imaginations of plots and treasonable practices. Clarendon. Syn. -- Treacherous; traitorous;