To quibble means to argue or complain about small, unimportant details instead of focusing on what really matters. When someone quibbles, they're picking apart minor points that don't change the bigger picture.

Imagine your teacher assigns a project about the solar system. You work hard on it for two weeks, creating detailed models and writing thorough explanations. When you present it, one classmate quibbles about whether you colored Mars the exact right shade of red, ignoring all the real work you did. That's quibbling: fussing over a tiny detail that doesn't affect the quality of your project.

A quibble (the noun) is the small complaint itself. If your friend says, “That was the best soccer game ever!” and you respond, “Well, technically it was only the second-best,” you're making a quibble. You're not actually disagreeing with the main point (that it was a great game), you're just being picky about the details.

People who quibble a lot can be exhausting to be around because they derail conversations with nitpicking. If your family is deciding between two excellent vacation spots and someone keeps quibbling about which one has slightly better weather in June, they're losing sight of the real point: either choice would be wonderful.