prevarication

plural prevarications

1. countableuncountableEvasion of the truth.

   Prevarication became the order of the day in his government while truth was a stranger in those halls.

   3 more examples

   The trumpet—vvill it ſound? the curtain riſe? And ſhow th' auguſt tribunal of the ſkies, / VVhere no prevarication ſhall avail, / VVhere eloquence and artifice ſhall fail, […]

   1782, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 291

   The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimmings when once the actions have become a lie.

   1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XIII, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 239

   Mr Rajoy frustrates many with his prevarication over a fresh euro-zone bail-out, which now comes with a conditional promise from the European Central Bank (ECB) to help bring down Spain’s stifling borrowing costs.

   2012 October 6, “Charlemagne: Mysterious Mariano”, in The Economist

   Synonyms: deceit, evasiveness

2. archaiccountableuncountableDeviation from what is right or correct.

   Synonyms: transgression, perversion

3. countableuncountableA secret abuse in the exercise of a public office.
4. Ancient RomecountablehistoricaluncountablelawThe collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.
5. countableuncountablelawA false or deceitful seeming to undertake a thing for the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

   If it shall appeare, that they haue forfeited their Faith, or wronged their Client by preuarication.

   1628, Robert Le Grys, Argenis, translation of original by John Barclay