prevaricate
English
WOTD – 5 December 2006
Alternative forms
- prævaricate (archaic)
Etymology
From the participle stem of Latin praevāricārī (“to walk crookedly, to play a false or double part”), from prae- + vāricāre (“to stand with feet apart, straddle”), from vārus (“deviating from the right line, bent outwards, different”), from Proto-Indo-European *wā- (“to bend apart”) (the root of various).
Pronunciation
Verb
prevaricate (third-person singular simple present prevaricates or (archaic) prevaricateth, 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.
- The people saw the politician prevaricate every day.
- (intransitive, law) To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
- (law, Britain) To undertake something falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
Derived terms
Translations
deviate, transgress
shift or turn from direct speech or behaviour, to equivocate
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(law) collude
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Italian
Verb
prevaricate
- second-person plural present indicative of prevaricare
- second-person plural imperative of prevaricare
- Feminine plural of prevaricato
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