Adjacent Words

Prevaricate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PREVAR'ICATE, v.i. [L. proevaricor; proe and varico, varicor, to straddle.]
1. To shuffle; to quibble; to shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course or from truth; to play foul play.
I would think better of himself, than that he would wilfully prevaricate.
2. In the civil law, to collude; as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
3. In English law, to undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
PREVAR'ICATE, v.t. To pervert; to corrupt; to evade by a quibble. [But in a transitive sense,this word is seldom or never used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information [syn: beat around the bush, equivocate, tergiversate, prevaricate, palter]

Merriam Webster's

intransitive verb (-cated; -cating) Etymology: Latin praevaricatus, past participle of praevaricari to act in collusion, literally, to straddle, from prae- + varicare to straddle, from varus bowlegged Date: circa 1631 to deviate from the truth ; equivocate Synonyms: see lie • prevarication noun • prevaricator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. 1 speak or act evasively or misleadingly. 2 quibble, equivocate. Usage: Often confused with procrastinate. Derivatives: prevarication n. prevaricator n. Etymology: L praevaricari walk crookedly, practise collusion, in eccl.L transgress (as PRAE-, varicari straddle f. varus bent, knock-kneed)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Prevaricate Pre*var"i*cate, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Prevaricated; p. pr. & vb. n. Prevaricating.] [L. praevaricatus, p. p. of praevaricari to walk crookedly, to collude; prae before + varicare to straddle, fr. varicus straddling, varus bent. See Varicose.] 1. To shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course, or from truth; to speak with equivocation; to shuffle; to quibble; as, he prevaricates in his statement. He prevaricates with his own understanding. --South. 2. (Civil Law) To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution. 3. (Eng. Law) To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it. Syn: To evade; equivocate; quibble; shuffle. Usage: Prevaricate, Evade, Equivocate. One who evades a question ostensibly answers it, but really turns aside to some other point. He who equivocate uses words which have a double meaning, so that in one sense he can claim to have said the truth, though he does in fact deceive, and intends to do it. He who prevaricates talks all round the question, hoping to ``dodge'' it, and disclose nothing.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Prevaricate Pre*var"i*cate, v. t. To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(prevaricates, prevaricating, prevaricated) If you prevaricate, you avoid giving a direct answer or making a firm decision. British ministers continued to prevaricate. VERB: V • prevarication (prevarications) After months of prevarication, the political decision had at last been made. N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. Quibble, shuffle, cavil, palter, dodge, evade the truth, equivocate, shift.

Moby Thesaurus

around the bush, back and fill, be untruthful, beat about, beg the question, belie, bicker, boggle, cavil, choplogic, deceive, dodge, draw the longbow, duck, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, exaggerate, falsify, fence, fib, garble, hedge, hem and haw, hum and haw, lie, lie flatly, mince the truth, mince words, mislead, misrepresent, mystify, nitpick, obscure, palter, parry, pick nits, pussyfoot, quibble, shift, shuffle, shy, sidestep, speak falsely, split hairs, story, stretch the truth, tell a lie, tergiversate, waffle, weasel