belittler, captious critic, carper, caviler, censor, censurer, common scold, critic, criticizer, equivocator, faultfinder, frondeur, hairsplitter, hedger, momus, mystificator, mystifier, obscurantist, palterer, perfectionist, pettifogger, picayune critic, precisian, precisianist, prevaricator, pussyfoot, pussyfooter, quibbler, scold, shuffler, smellfungus, stickler, tergiversator