- 1
To prevaricate is to hide the truth by not answering straight. You do not always tell a clear lie. You slide around the question, change the subject, or use words so nobody can pin you down. A child who broke a cup might prevaricate. A public figure might prevaricate for ten minutes and still not say yes or no. It is a formal word, and a little sharp: if you say someone is prevaricating, you are not praising them. In everyday talk people say beat around the bush or dodge the question. Though actually, prevaricating is often worse than a shy pause — it is the wriggling itself that does the hiding.
含糊其辭、顧左右而言他（比「說謊」輕一點：重點是不正面回答。）
組成From Latin praevāricātus, from praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; to play a double part”), from prae- + vāricō (“to stand with the feet apart, to straddle”), from vāricus (“with feet spread”). English -ate makes the verb. The picture is someone stepping out of a straight line.
同家族的字
- prevaricationthe noun: the dodging itself
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
prevaricateverb/pɹɪˈvaɹɪkeɪt/
- 1
obsoleteTo deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
- 2
To speak or act in a manner that is intentionally ambiguous or evasive; equivocate.
- The people saw the politician prevaricate every day.
- At the moment of her departure he could prevaricate no longer, and, confessing to the gambling, told her the truth as far as he knew it—that the guineas had been won by Wildeve.
- 3
lawTo collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
- 4
lawTo undertake something falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。