Definition (Adjective) Apt to catch at faults or take exception to actions; disposed to find fault, cavil, or raise objections; fault-finding, cavilling, carping. In Context "I did think the style just a shade too archaic, but considered it a captious criticism." Valerie Eliot and John Haffenden, Editors, The Letters of T. S. Eliot: Volume 3, 1926-1927, 2012.