prevaricate
Other forms: prevaricated; prevaricating; prevaricates
When you prevaricate, you lie or mislead. Now, go ahead and tell me whether you already knew that meaning, and don’t prevaricate about it — give me the story straight!
While prevaricate basically means to lie, it also has the sense of making it hard to know exactly what the lie was. You talk in a confusing way, go back and forth, and as deliberately as possible mislead someone. Government officials, bureaucrats, and sneaky types prevaricate in the hopes that it will be too difficult to figure out whether they've been doing something wrong. Don't prevaricate with your parents — it will definitely make you look guilty, but they just won't be sure of what!
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be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold informationsynonyms: beat around the bush, equivocate, palter, tergiversate
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Vocabulary lists containing prevaricate
Let's face it, we all (or at least most of us) lie. Whether you just want to spare someone's feelings or want to get away with something you really shouldn't be doing, people bend the truth on occasion. It's no surprise, then, that there are so many words that describe the telling of untruths. Whether the motivation is malicious or kindhearted, there is a nuanced way to describe it. Here are fifteen words to describe liars and the webs they spin. For the full article, check out Fudging It: A Lexicon of Lies
From insincere displays of emotion to falsely labeled products to outright lies, there are unfortunately a lot of ways to be dishonest or fake. For more synonym lists, explore our Say What You Mean resources.
Whether or not you're practiced in the art of deception, learn these words related to tricks, traps and illusions. Read the full article: Seeing Through the Lexicon of Smoke and Mirrors Day