Verb meaning "to act pedantic"

I am trying to find a verb which can be used to indicate that someone is acting pedantic.

I first considered "pedanticise", but, having found only one source for this, I thought I'd broach the question here.

Edit: To clarify, I am defining pedantic to mean:

excessively concerned with minor details or rules; overscrupulous. -- Google

Or:

overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching. -- Dictionary.com

An example of this word used in a sentence would be, "Because Ellie spent the whole day ____ing over the grammar choices in her emails, she didn't get any work done!"

Solution 1:

You could say that person was quibbling. It generally indicates that the person is using semantics to ignore the point of an argument. If they're just trying to be obnoxious, I would usually say they were nitpicking.

Solution 2:

It kind of matters which meaning of pedantic you mean. If you mean someone who shows

narrow, often ostentatious concern for academic knowledge and formal rules

Then nit-pick, as @vladkornea suggested, is good. Hair-split is also good.

But if you are thinking of someone

pompous or schoolmasterly

You might like pontificate:

to speak or behave in a pompous or dogmatic manner. Also (less commonly): pontify

It has a nice, 4-syllable sound and is somewhat pompous in itself.

Solution 3:

"Because Ellie spent the whole day ____ing over the grammar choices in her emails, she didn't get any work done!".

ruminating

obsessing

agonizing