hairsplitter
- n a disputant who makes unreasonably fine distinctions
- Senator Robert Taft, a hairsplitter to his enemies, a Blackstone to his friends, exploded a bomb under his fellow Americans.
- Though many think that he is a stubborn hairsplitter in enforcing too many rules and regulations (e.
- The Judge, "legal hairsplitter" (as the Republicans called him) "honest, impartial, fearless patriot" (as the Monarchists called him) found that Editor Rothardt was guilty of .