'Prevarication' definitions:
Definition of 'prevarication'
(from WordNet)
noun
A statement that deviates from or perverts the truth [syn: lie, prevarication]
noun
Intentionally vague or ambiguous [syn: equivocation, prevarication, evasiveness]
noun
The deliberate act of deviating from the truth [syn: lying, prevarication, fabrication]
Definition of 'Prevarication'
From: GCIDE
- Prevarication \Pre*var`i*ca"tion\, n. [L. praevaricatio: cf. F. pr['e]varication.]
- 1. The act of prevaricating, shuffling, or quibbling, to evade the truth or the disclosure of truth; a deviation from the truth and fair dealing. [1913 Webster]
- The august tribunal of the skies, where no prevarication shall avail. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A secret abuse in the exercise of a public office. [1913 Webster]
- 3. (Law) (a) (Roman Law) The collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution. (b) (Common Law) A false or deceitful seeming to undertake a thing for the purpose of defeating or destroying it. --Cowell. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'prevarication'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- bickering,
- blague,
- boggling,
- bouncer,
- canard,
- captiousness,
- caviling,
- chicane,
- chicanery,
- cock-and-bull story,
- coloring,
- confabulation,
- distortion,
- dodging,
- equivocation,
- evasion,
- exaggeration,
- fairy tale,
- false coloring,
- false swearing,
- falsehood,
- falsification,
- falsifying,
- falsity,
- farfetched story,
- farrago,
- fencing,
- fib,
- fiction,
- fish story,
- flam,
- flimflam,
- ghost story,
- hairsplitting,
- half-truth,
- hedging,
- legal fiction,
- lie,
- little white lie,
- logic-chopping,
- mendacity,
- miscoloring,
- misconstruction,
- misrepresentation,
- misstatement,
- nit-picking,
- paltering,
- parrying,
- perjury,
- perversion,
- pettifoggery,
- pious fiction,
- pussyfooting,
- quibbling,
- shifting,
- shuffle,
- shuffling,
- sidestepping,
- slight stretching,
- story,
- straining,
- subterfuge,
- suppressio veri,
- tale,
- tall story,
- tall tale,
- taradiddle,
- tergiversation,
- trichoschistism,
- trumped-up story,
- untruth,
- weasel words,
- white lie,
- yarn