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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;

 

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