captious

pikkumainen, saivarteleva puhekieltä That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.
1605, (w), s:Alls Well that Ends Well|All's Well that Ends Well'':

I know I loue in vaine, striue against hope: / Yet in this captious, and intemible Siue / I still poure in the waters of my loue / And lacke not to loose still.

A captious question, sir, and yours is one, / Deserves an answer similar, or none.

But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride.

The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed.