I.a jeering, raillery, scoffing, irony in jest or in earnest: “cum duo genera sint facetiarum, alterum aequabiliter in omni sermone fusum, alterum peracutum et breve: illa a veteribus superior cavillatio, haec altera dicacitas nominata est,” Cic. de Or. 2, 54, 218: cavillatio est jocosa calumniatio, Paul. ex Fest. p. 45 Müll.; Plaut. Stich. 1, 3, 75; id. Truc. 3, 2, 17; Suet. Vesp. 23; Gell. 5, 5, 2: “inter consules magis cavillatio quam magna contentio de provinciā fuit,” Liv. 42, 32, 1: “acerba,” Suet. Tib. 57: “nominis,” id. Gram. 3.—
II. Meton., an empty, sophistical discourse, sophistry (so most freq. in Quint.), Cic. ap. Sen. Ep. 111, 1; cf. Dig. 50, 16, 177: “ineptae,” Quint. 7, 9, 4: “infelix verborum,” id. 10, 7, 14; cf. id. 2, 17, 7: “manifesta,” id. 9, 1, 15: “juris,” id. 7, 4, 37: “sine metu cavillationis,” id. 2, 14, 5.
