carping
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
- carpingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of carping
1275–1325; Middle English (noun); see carp 1, -ing 2, -ing 1
Explanation
Carping is petty and unjustified criticism that just won’t stop. People who find fault with you at every turn, who appreciate nothing and complain, complain, complain, are carping. Enough already! Your annoying aunt Mildred who constantly picks on you, listing all the things she thinks are wrong about the way you dress, the style of your hair, who you’re dating, and where you’re working? She’s carping. Carping can also be used as an adjective, to describe someone who is overly critical and impossible to please — like that carping food critic who ruined the debut of your new restaurant.
Vocabulary lists containing carping
Much Ado About Nothing
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East of Eden
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Ophelia
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Worrying about 20 people on his left carping on Twitter is not how he should be living,” Rosen said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025
Believe me, I’m completely aware that I sound like a Scrooge, a buzzkill harping and carping about innocuous movies that are meant to be little more than background noise while people scroll on their phones.
From Salon • Dec. 21, 2024
After enough of his students’ carping, however, Hayes decided to put the snakes to the test.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024
“A lot of discourse around it. A lot of carping back and forth. A lot of anger. A lot of commentary,” Stewart said.
From New York Times • Feb. 27, 2024
The Morrison children, coming home from school, would find no aches, no carping, no headache.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
