[‘ A play on words, a pun.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈkwɪbl/, U.S. /ˈkwɪb(ə)l/
Forms: 16 *whibble*, 16–17 *quible*, 16– *quibble*, 17 *wheebele* /Sc./.
Etymology:Apparently < quib n. + -le suffix 1. Perhaps compare earlier quibibble n., quibibe n., and quiblin n.
The word form quible, with no gloss or other explanation, occurs in the Generall Table of R. Mulcaster /First Part Elementarie/ (1582) xxv. 209/1.
For an alternative etymology relating the word ultimately to the group of words connected with cavil n. see W. Rothwell in English Studies/ *85* (2004) June 177–88, and compare Anglo-Norman /kevil small, ethically dubious matter (1313 or earlier in this figurative sense), variant of keville peg, nail, plug (see kevel n.2, and compare earlier cavil n. and later cheville n.).
*1.* A play on words, a pun.
a/1627 T. Middleton /Mayor of Quinborough/ (1661) v. i. 63, /2 Cheat. The Whirligig, the Whibble, the Carwidgen. ./Sym/. Hey day, what names are these! 2 Cheat. New names of late.
1709 Ld. Shaftesbury /Sensus Communis: Ess. Freedom of Wit/ 8 All Humour had something of the Quibble. The very Language of the Court was Punning.
1781 Johnson /Pope/ in /Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets/ VII. 369 The opposition of Immortalis and Mortalis, is a mere sound, or a mere quibble.
1827 R. M. Bird /Caridorf/ ii. iv, in /America’s Lost Plays/ (1941) XII. 97, I think puns, quibbles, double-entendres, tropes,..and several other comical things, Are as material to your witty man, As legs to your horses.
1858 O. W. Holmes /Autocrat of Breakfast-table/ xi. 293 Several questions, involving a quibble or play upon words.
1925 /Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer./ *40* 597 Quibbles on the shrew’s name are particularly common.
1993 /Shakespeare Bull./ Summer 15/3 In a play where rhetoric competes with pedantry, quibbles with malapropisms, and eloquence rides high above all, one should not complain that the production fell short of verbal brilliance.
*2.*
*a.* An equivocation, evasion, or frivolous objection based on an ambiguity or uncertainty of wording, a trivial circumstance, etc. In later use freq.: an objection to a point of detail, a minor complaint or criticism.
In quot. 1796 /fig./
1650 T. Vaughan /Magia Adamica/ 45 Truly this is it which no Distinction, nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave, nothing but Experience can refell this Argument.
1675 R. Baxter /Catholick Theol./ i. iii. 41 To answer all these fallacies and quibbles, founded in some false supposition or ambiguous word.
1768 H. Walpole /Hist. Doubts/ 100 (note), Henry was so reduced to making out any title to the crown, that he catched even at a quibble.
1796 M. Robinson /Angelina/ II. 184 His features were all quibbles; for it was impossible to guess what they meant for two minutes together.
1855 T. B. Macaulay /Hist. Eng./ III. xiv. 471 To a plain understanding his objections seem to be mere quibbles.
1878 W. E. H. Lecky /Hist. Eng. 18th Cent./ I. ii. 280 Those advocates of persecution, who would stoop to any quibble in their cause.
1908 E. F. Benson /Climber/ 158 You say that, owing to your sex, you have a greater experience of women smoking. A quibble, my darling, a palpable quibble.
1968 /N.Y. Post/ 15 Jan. 45/3 Each day passes with some new semantic quibble emanating from Washington.
2006 /Wallpaper/ June–July 32/1 We always manage to find fault with the hotels we’re staying in. Sometimes it’s a mere quibble (the minibar contents are disappointing, the décor a little off message).
*b.* The use of quibbles; quibbling.
1710 S. Palmer /Moral Ess. Prov./ 100 A liar is upon the reserve, and wou’d throw off the odium by quibble and equivocation.
1771 ‘Junius’ /Stat Nominis Umbra/ (1772) II. lxi. 287 You attribute it to an honest zeal in behalf of innocence oppressed by quibble and chicane.
1881 W. S. Gilbert /Patience/ ii. 30 To stuff his conversation full of quibble and of quiddity.
1941 F. F. Van de Water /Reluctant Republic/ iii. 37 By quibble and delay..Wentworth had saved his province men and money.
1993 I. Doig /Heart Earth/ (1994) 6 We had ended up somewhere between quibble and quarrel forever, this quicksilver uncle and I.
Compounds
General attrib. and objective.
†quibble-catching adj. /Obs./ /rare/.
1678 T. Rymer /Trag. Last Age/ 4 Much less have I cast about for Jests, and gone a quibble-catching.
quibble-loving adj. /rare/.
/a/1807 /Britannic Mag./ *10* 61/1 But the golden age for puns and quibbles, was the reign of that quibbling and quibble-loving pedant, James the First.
1827 J. Bentham /Rationale Judicial Evid./ V. ix. iv. iii. 234 A quibble-loving lawyer.
†quibble-sanctioning adj. /Obs./ /rare/.
1829 J. Bentham /Justice & Codification Petitions/ 115 The quibble-sanctioning judge.
†quibble-springe n. /Obs./ /rare/.
1839 ‘D. I. Moriarty’ /Husband-Hunter/ III. 202 Law pun-traps and quibble-springes.