Captious

Middle English capcious, from Middle French captieux, or its source, Latin captiÅsus, from captiÅnem.

Full definition of captious

(obsolete) That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.

1605, William Shakespeare, :I know I loue in vaine, striue against hope:
Yet in this captious, and intemible Siue
I still poure in the waters of my loue
And lacke not to loose still.
1784, William Cowper, "A Review of Schools", in Poems, 1859 ed., page 219:A captious question, sir, and yours is one,
Deserves an answer similar, or none.
March 24, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Chapter To William Lisle Bowles, Were you aware that in your discourse last Sunday you attributed the captious Problem of the Sadducees to the Pharisees, as a proof of the obscure and sensual doctrines of the latter?

Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky

1968, Sidney Monas, translating Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866):But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride.
2009, Anne Karpf, The Guardian, 24 Jan 2009:The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed.

(disposed to find fault) faultfinding, nitpicky, carping, critical, hypercritical
(tending to capture or entrap) tricky, thorny; sophistical