temporize

• Cowardice is called meekness; to temporize is to be charitable and reverent; to speak truth, and shame the devil, is to offend weak brethren, who, somehow or other, never complain of their weak consciences till you hit them hard. —  Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet
• In obedience to his very conscience he will temporize, and, finding no other way of achieving good, will do even evil that good may come of it. —  Life of Cicero
• It was necessary to temporize, therefore, however humiliating such conduct might be deemed. —  The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)
• For he is prone to temporize, anxious to prevent an issue from approaching a crisis, evidently in the hope that something may "turn up" to improve the situation and obviate the necessity of conflict. —  Woodrow Wilson and the World War A Chronicle of Our Own Times.
• He endeavoured to temporize, and requested our conductor to accompany him to his house, in order that he might put on his red cloth stockings There will be no occasion for red cloth stockings,’ said the ferash, dryly This produced a universal tremor in the mollah, and I must own that it communicated itself to me in no agreeable manner. —  The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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