[-ING1.] The action of the verb QUIBBLE. Also with a and pl., an instance or specimen of this.
1628. Shirley, Witty Fair One, III. ii. I have made a quibbling in praise of her.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 36. You say you will bound, and you will not bound. It looks like quibbling.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 487. There’s nothing which these disputants will not oppose by their niceties and quibblings.
1831. Blakey, Free-will, 172. The various quibblings, shufflings, reservations, and qualifications … must be abundantly evident to every one.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 514. In spite of this quibbling, he was pronounced guilty.
