split hairs

noun, verb — 2 senses

noun

Idiomatic Tedious details; minutiae.

The Microsoft trial had been in danger of slipping out of the public eye. Its endless procession of less-than-riveting economics professors and forgetful executives, mixed with scads of legal and technical split hairs, just hasn't made for gripping headlines.1999 February 4, Lev Grossman, “Microsoft Tangled Up in Videotape Evidence”, in Time:

verb

Idiomatic To consider or argue about fine details; to worry about minutiae.

Let's get everything sorted into the right drawers and not split hairs about subdividing it further yet.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.