0 to make unreasonable complaints, especially about things that are not important
1 an unreasonable complaint, especially about something that is not important:
One slight cavil is that the author could have given more sense of the process of historical change.
I cannot defend the system against all cavils or criticisms from any source.
If I have any cavil with his new piece, it lies in its lack of adventurousness.
Here a minor cavil must be registered at the poor quality of these illustrations, which are difficult (and in one case impossible) to read.
Apart from this relatively small cavil, however, this book is undeniably a tour de force of scholarship.
They would no doubt find plenty at which to cavil, as always.
Such caviling leads on to my final point.
These cavils are in a certain sense irrelevant, however.
