Verb (used without object) : He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.    From Dictionary.com. 

Verb (used with object) : to cavil each item of a proposed agenda.    From Dictionary.com. 

I refer every caviller to a brick house, sashed windows below, and casements above, in Highbury.    From Wordnik.com.  [Emma]

The philosophic pessimist is not a fretful and malignant caviller who sneers at the follies of others because he thinks himself so much wiser than they.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"; an essay on the Wagnerian drama] Reference

Will the caviller still contend with the Almighty?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur] Reference

Man hath He created from a moist germ; 2 yet lo! man is an open caviller.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Koran (Al-Qur'an)] Reference

A precise sceptical caviller will always find new objections as soon as the first are refuted.    From Wordnik.com.  [Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World, Bunsen's Biblical Researches, On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity; Seances Historiques de Gen��ve; On the Mosaic Cosmogony; Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688-1750; On the Interpretation of Scripture.] Reference

He was no conceited or froward caviller at authority, nor born rebel against established teachers and governors.    From Wordnik.com.  [Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) Turgot] Reference

I have proof enough to carry conviction to any honest breast – to satisfy any caviller – except a court of justice.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Hidden Hand] Reference

And a caviller might raise all the same objections to the Copernican system, which you have urged against my reasonings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion] Reference

Will the caviller prove that the sun and moon would be greater blessings if their light wore more intense, or more abundant?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again A Life Story] Reference

Though he was an authority among the young men in sailing boats, he had not attained this distinction by being a critic and caviller.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder] Reference

A public accuser would be intolerable, or even a caviller, who should inveigh against sins for which he himself is called in question.    From Wordnik.com.  [Life of Cicero Volume One] Reference

For my temptation to think it a right, I refer every caviller to a brick house, sashed windows below, and casements above, in Highbury.    From Wordnik.com.  [Emma] Reference

Since then there has been no more persistent caviller at the Irish policy and the Irish Party in company where he believed such cavilling paid.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888)] Reference

As to any mistakes I have made in computation, they are of little moment; and I shall not descend so low as to justify them against any caviller.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. - Volume 07 Historical and Political Tracts-Irish] Reference

The caviller may object, and talk about military and political necessities, and physical and moral impossibilities, and philosophic difficulties.    From Wordnik.com.  [God in the War. A Sermon Delivered before the Legislature of Georgia, in the Capitol at Milledgeville, on Friday, November 15, 1861, Being a Day Set apart for Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, by his Excellency the President of the Confederate States] Reference

The doubt to which the passage gives rise having thus been stated, a caviller starts the following objection: neither of the stated views can be maintained.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1] Reference

On the other hand, exceptions held forth as fatal by the shallow caviller are seen by the more deeply reflecting in all their actual littleness and fallacy.    From Wordnik.com.  [Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World, Bunsen's Biblical Researches, On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity; Seances Historiques de Gen��ve; On the Mosaic Cosmogony; Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688-1750; On the Interpretation of Scripture.] Reference

This is a fine legal quibble, stated for a purpose; but since legal minds disagree upon this point, a caviller might say no law is self-executing; all laws require enforcement.    From Wordnik.com.  [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II] Reference

Let such caviller understand, that His feet were first anointed before the box was broken, and there remained in it, yet whole, enough wherewith to anoint the head by breaking the box and shedding the contents.    From Wordnik.com.  [Catena Aurea - Gospel of Matthew] Reference

"No science affords more scope or easier ground for the caviller and controversialist; and these do good by preventing scholars from giving more force to generalisations than the master propounding them does, or meant his readers or hearers to give.".    From Wordnik.com.  [More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2] Reference

The caviller, if any there should prove to be, is challenged to produce the log-book of the Montauk, London packet, and if it should be found to contain a single sentence to controvert any one of our statements or facts, a frank recantation shall be made.    From Wordnik.com.  [Homeward Bound or, the Chase] Reference

A caviller will find any want of harmony between these different modes of expression.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Theology of Holiness] Reference

A caviller but Burrus has the reachly roundered head that goes best with thofthinking defensive fideism.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finnegans Wake] Reference

A caviller might say: — "Your ancestors have not left you a treasure of pure virtue, nor a collection of literary works.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lunheng] Reference

Catasetums, -- all right, you audacious 'caviller.'").    From Wordnik.com.  [More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2] Reference

Yet lo! is he an open caviller.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Koran (Al-Qur'an)] Reference

The little caviller was silent.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Vicar's Daughter] Reference