Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate. See Synonyms at lie2.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To deviate; swerve from the normal or proper course; stray.
- To swerve from the truth; act or speak evasively; quibble.
- In law: To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying the object which it is professed to promote.
- To betray the cause of a client, and by collusion assist his opponent.
- To pervert; cause to deviate from the normal or proper path, application, or meaning.
- To transgress; violate.
Wiktionary
- v. To deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
- v. To shift or turn from direct speech or behaviour; to evade the truth; to waffle or be (intentionally) ambiguous.
- v. To behave in an evasive way such as to delay action; to procrastinate.
- v. To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. 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.
- v. To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
- v. To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
- v. To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information
Etymologies
- Latin praevāricārī, praevāricāt- : prae-, pre- + vāricāre, to straddle (from vāricus, straddling, from vārus, bent).
Examples
“He used the word prevaricate instead of procrastinate because he was talking about the deceit of the banking industry in cahoots with the government.”
“However: We prevaricate, which is to say, being interpreted, we hedge.”
Fictionaut: Why is a Hog always Corpulent ? (or Another Special Exhibit at the Met)
“Who was that in the Planet Money clip who doesn't know "prevaricate" (lie) from”
“The euro zone can no longer afford to prevaricate and obfuscate.”
The Wall Street Journal: Limiting the Damage of a Greek Default
“US officials will prevaricate, noting that the US spends this amount or that amount.”
The Huffington Post: Jeffrey Sachs: Washington Leaves Millions To Die
“Even in New York, where you're gay until proven otherwise, I was careful to parse my words, prevaricate for the comfort of others and subtly pepper in the tell-tale personal pronoun in order to introduce the subject of a boyfriend.”
“But Informants may prevaricate for money or revenge.”
The Huffington Post: Bruce Fein: Predator Drones: Bin Laden's Best Friends
“Yet Phil Woolas, the immigration minister (and, as I well remember a nasty little self-centred careerist when he was head of the National Union Students in my college days - a real horrible little greasy pole climber who obviously hasn't changed one jot) continues to prevaricate and pettifog.”
Global Voices in English » The Gurkhas: Long History Of Discrimination
“Dogmatic men coiled around lighted coffee tables will continue to explain, suggest and prevaricate.”
The Guardian: Better to accept the beautiful chaos of football than to talk about it | Barney Ronay
“An E-friend of mine was playing with them and I didn't have to prevaricate when saying how I liked it. posted by John at 11: 12 AM”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prevaricate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 314 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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Pants on fire
Synonyms and euphemisms for lie, liar, or lying.
disingenuous, equivocator, fabricator, fibber, maligner, prevaricator, hypocrite, mendacity, mendacious, fabulist, pantelones encend..., pinocchio and 16 more...
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GRE hit parade words
enervate, prevaricate, perfunctory, approbation, disparate, inure, capricious, aberrant
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Oh my GRE!
list of painstaking words i frequently forget.

kingparton Why should we prevaricate, just at the last? We never prevaricated before. I have got to die some time, and it's better to die when one is sick than when one is well.
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady Nov 12, 2011
Prolagus "Now, then, sir, don't prevaricate," he began - "don't prevaricate!"
"I won't, sir," answered his son, mildly.
"You will. With all my experience, I surely ought to know when a man is going to prevaricate or not," said his sire. "Now, sir, I am going to ask you a plain question, and I want a plain answer. I am a plain man, as you know."
(Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours (1879), by Frank Leslie) Aug 4, 2008