Definition of Prevaricate

1. Verb. Be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information.


Definition of Prevaricate

1. v. i. 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.

2. v. t. To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert.

Definition of Prevaricate

1. Verb. (transitive intransitive obsolete) To deviate, transgress; to go astray (from). ¹

2. Verb. (intransitive) To shift or turn from direct speech or behaviour; to evade the truth; to waffle or be (intentionally) ambiguous. ¹

3. Verb. (intransitive) To behave in an evasive way such as to delay action; to procrastinate. ¹

4. Verb. (intransitive legal) To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Prevaricate

1. [v -CATED, -CATING, -CATES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Prevaricate

prevalences
prevalency
prevalent
prevalently
prevalents
prevalidate
prevalidated
prevalidates
prevalidating
prevalidation
prevalidations
prevalue
prevalued
prevalues
prevaluing
prevaricate
prevaricated
prevaricates
prevaricating
prevarication
prevarications
prevaricator
prevaricators
prevascular
preve
preved
prevenancy
prevene
prevened
prevenes

Literary usage of Prevaricate

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Treatise on the Law of Evidence as Administered in England and Ireland by John Pitt Taylor (1887)
"... that it gives him leave to attend, adding, in case he be a member, " if he think fit"5 If the witness, on attending, refuse to be sworn, or prevaricate, ..."

2. A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from by Richard Chenevix Trench (1865)
"To prevaricate ' is to betray the cause which one affects to sustain, the prevaricator ... Prevaricate."

3. Life in Danbury: Being a Brief But Comprehensive Record of the Doings of a by James Montgomery Bailey (1873)
"... and never sought to prevaricate on ft tax list, and has the right kind of gun, he can fetch down an average of three coons a day through the season, ..."

4. The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical by Alexander Chalmers (1816)
"This work was esteemed not only a full design to prevaricate in this matter; that they were en- d tied with a large portion of the Huly Spirit, ..."

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