Lexic.us

Definition of Hairsplitting

1. Noun. Making too fine distinctions of little importance. "They didn't take his hairsplitting seriously"

2. Adjective. Developed in excessively fine detail. "Finespun distinctions"

Definition of Hairsplitting

1. a. Making excessively nice or trivial distinctions in reasoning; subtle.

Definition of Hairsplitting

1. Noun. The act of considering or arguing about fine details, or worrying about minutiae. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Hairsplitting

1. [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Hairsplitting

hairpin curve hairpin loop hairpin loops hairpin turn hairpins hairpulling hairraising hairs hairsbreadth hairsbreadths

hairshirt hairshirts hairslide hairsplitter hairsplitters hairsplitting (current term) hairsplittings hairspray hairsprays hairspring

hairsprings hairst hairsted hairsting hairstone hairstreak hairstreaks hairsts hairstyle

Literary usage of Hairsplitting

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Looking Backward, 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy (1888)
"We should have no sort of use for the hairsplitting experts who presided and argued in your courts. You must not imagine, however, that we have any ..."

2. The Promised Land by Mary Antin (1912)
"Thus I, in my hairsplitting analyses of persons and motives; while the portrait went steadily on. It was Miss Hale who first found a use for our superfluous ..."

3. Publishers Weekly by Publishers' Board of Trade (U.S.), Book Trade Association of Philadelphia, American Book Trade Union, Am. Book Trade Association, R.R. Bowker Company (1882)
"... and without a trace of mere hairsplitting ; and in its aspect as an account of the early traditions of all the great nations of the earth in connection ..."

4. The American Historical Review by American historical association (1897)
"Indeed, we may well wonder with Dr. Lea whether these hairsplitting theologians had any conception of permanent moral distinctions, (¡¡ven a rigid system of ..."

5. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"... twice since the days of Leibnitz, into a productiveness of knowledge which is not paralleled in the world. The opposition to the hairsplitting rational- ..."

6. The American Journal of Psychology by Granville Stanley Hall, Edward Bradford Titchener (1913)
"The method of exposition, also, is unfortunate: the popular reader is offered hairsplitting distinctions and abstract explanations in terms of the ..."

7. Technology Review by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Association of Class Secretaries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association (1899)
"... inspectors to begin a policy of hairsplitting which would jeopardize production. Gen. EM Weaver writes from the office of the chief of Coast Artillery, ..."

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