What's the difference between niggle and quibble?

Niggle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To trifle with; to deceive; to mock.
  • (v. t.) To trifle or play.
  • (v. t.) To act or walk mincingly.
  • (v. t.) To fret and snarl about trifles.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But I also feel a niggling strain of jealousy, even resentment, that it wasn't as easy for me the first time around as it is today for many people.
  • (2) But there was always a niggling suspicion that the fun couldn’t last – that Tempelhof’s unique status as a hugely valuable piece of land essentially given over to the average picnicking Berliner was too good to be true.
  • (3) Others face more niggling problems: in a recent post on the local Facebook group “Eliminate All Stray Dogs”, one resident claimed an unruly pack kept jumping on his car, destroying its windscreen wipers.
  • (4) I first saw the ad this weekend, and it's been niggling away at me ever since.
  • (5) Mauro Zárate has been ruled out for two weeks after injuring a hamstring, Enner Valencia will not return until October at the earliest after he suffered a serious knee injury last month and Andy Carroll’s comeback from the knee problem that has kept him out since February has been put back by a week after a niggle in training on Thursday.
  • (6) Ben Flower tested that theory to the limit with his attack on an initially niggling but ultimately defenceless Lance Hohaia which ensured that the 17th Super League Grand Final made a greater national and international impact than any of the previous 16.
  • (7) It is a troubling question that niggles away throughout our visit.
  • (8) Women who do have doubts or niggles are on the other side before they have a chance to think it through.
  • (9) This will unload the skeleton and give joints the chance to rest and recover, especially if one is prone to niggles or has a history of injuries – and you would probably therefore get more out of the long runs when you do undertake them."
  • (10) The niggling question Back to that niggling question: why intervene?
  • (11) Martínez said: “We gave all the players three penalties in training yesterday and if they scored all three then we said they could be back-up to Rom in the games, Ross did, so we said he could in the game.But he didn’t take a Panenka [in training] – he wasn’t allowed!”The Everton manager confirmed John Stones was omitted due to a “niggle” in his hamstring and is expected to be rested for a week to 10 days.
  • (12) Mayor Boris Johnson, whose default setting has been relentless and sometimes improbable cheerleading in the face of serious concerns and minor niggles, promised with typical restraint that as the flame "spreads through the city its radiance will dispel any last clouds of dankness and anxiety that may hover over some parts of the media".
  • (13) On the other hand, have niggles surfaced from continued use that weren't obvious before?
  • (14) I see all kinds of parents making huge efforts to ensure their children are happy, but niggling away in the back of their minds is the disturbing thought that they must prepare their children for lives which could be much harder than their own.
  • (15) Same-sex marriage ruling's ripple effect – historic celebrations of love Read more Almost immediately after the supreme court on Friday made same-sex marriage a right throughout the United States , conservative leaders around the south indicated they would resist the ruling with delay, bureaucratic niggling and circumvention of the verdict on religious grounds.
  • (16) But, as you brace yourself to elbow your way back through Heathrow terminal 3, you harbour niggling prelapsarian feelings about what you've just left behind.
  • (17) During saturation decompression there were 6 treated bends and 33 reported niggles.
  • (18) That would be a staggering achievement given she missed winter training, has had continuing achilles niggles and does not expect to be near her best for another 12 months.
  • (19) The niggling caveat, however, is the proliferation of known unknowns.
  • (20) Or, indeed, all the niggling setbacks suffered over the week which meant the 18-man match day squad included every outfield senior player available.

Quibble


Definition:

  • (n.) A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; an evasion; a cavil.
  • (n.) A pun; a low conceit.
  • (v. i.) To evade the point in question by artifice, play upon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate.
  • (v. i.) To pun; to practice punning.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) And please don’t quibble about whether you have any direct lineage to the architects of racism.
  • (2) Quibbling over whether fashion is more or less important than art is just as pointless as questioning whether or not it is art.
  • (3) And with four years as her nation’s chief diplomat on the world stage under her belt, Mrs Clinton’s personal gravitas is even harder to quibble with than it might have been in 2008.
  • (4) Dammers learned that Mandela had just one quibble with the Special AKA song.
  • (5) Other quibbles: some iPhone apps don't scale so brilliantly to such a large screen.
  • (6) To quibble further, one might say, is to simply argue about hinges.
  • (7) I find myself wondering how far I should go to say that FGM is the slicing off on a conscious young girl with no anaesthetic of her clitoris and labia... “This is a quibble about a couple of stitches and it is a complete distraction.” Mr Justice Sweeney, in summing up to the jury on Wednesday, said everyone accepted Dharmasena had saved the life of the woman’s baby in an emergency delivery on 24 November, 2012.
  • (8) "While I do quibble with the ethics (or lack of ethics) in posting the Salinger stories, they look to be true transcripts of the originals and match my own copies."
  • (9) You have explained how you have got caught up in this thing, you've explained your motives: I don't want to quibble about any of that.
  • (10) Even the US administration, which has repeatedly played up the uncertainties in climate science, has not quibbled with the inclusion of statements such as "human activities since 1750 have very likely (>90%) exerted a net warming influence on climate", and "further emissions of greenhouse gases would be expected to change the climate of the 21st century".
  • (11) No one could quibble with the report’s section on geopolitics.
  • (12) Certainly, some will quibble as to how much blame the federal government should receive for this economic downturn.
  • (13) But there's a bigger problem with the politics of idleness than quibbling over definitions.
  • (14) The next question is also on inflation but is a bit quibbly: what if inflation is like, you know, really big?
  • (15) Oh, there are quibbles, so many quibbles, some unfortunately presentational.
  • (16) Homewatt.co.uk sells LED bulbs and if you don't think they are suitable, use its seven-day no-quibble returns policy to get your money back.
  • (17) And for the hopefuls lining up outside the passport office: thou shalt not quibble about freedom of speech.
  • (18) But the deeper flaw was a complacent assumption that Labour was the moral choice, and that people would realise as much if only their misguided quibbles about public spending could be neutralised.
  • (19) Some quibbled about the methodology, but, taken at face value, the test yielded good and bad results.
  • (20) It's an understandable stance, since to quibble over the reasons why 15 million died in the first world war may well look unseemly, particularly for a politician hoping that his party replaces Gove's as government next year, but it doesn't have much of the lion about it.