prevaricate (third-person singular simple present (archaic) prevaricateth or prevaricates, present participle prevaricating, simple past and past participle prevaricated)
(transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
(intransitive) To shift or turn from direct speech or behaviour; to evade the truth; to waffle or be (intentionally) ambiguous.
(intransitive, legal) To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
(legal, UK) To undertake something falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
• beat around the bush
• tergiversate
Source: Wiktionary
Pre*var"i*cate, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Prevaricated; p. pr. & vb. n. Prevaricating.] Etym: [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)
Definition: To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
3. (Eng. Law)
Definition: To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
Syn.
– To evade; equivocate; quibble; shuffle.
– 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.
Pre*var"i*cate, v. t.
Definition: To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
29 September 2024
(noun) the technical aspects of doing something; “a mechanism of social control”; “mechanisms of communication”; “the mechanics of prose style”
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
