MEANING
To avoid giving a direct or truthful answer by evasive wording or misleading responses.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- prevaricate about a decision
- refuse to prevaricate
- prevaricate under questioning
On the page
Asked who had opened the vault, he began to prevaricate about the reliability of the clocks.
She would not prevaricate, even when a vague answer might have spared him.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- prevaricate
- Past tense
- prevaricated
- Past participle
- prevaricated
- Present participle
- prevaricating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- prevaricate
- Present continuous
- am/is/are prevaricating
- Present perfect
- have/has prevaricated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been prevaricating
- Past
- prevaricated
- Past continuous
- was/were prevaricating
- Past perfect
- had prevaricated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been prevaricating
- Future
- will prevaricate
- Future continuous
- will be prevaricating
- Future perfect
- will have prevaricated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been prevaricating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: prevaricate; prevaricates; prevaricated; prevaricated; prevaricating Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: prevaricates.
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