SG Heritage Dictionary

Prevaricate [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To shuffle; to quibble; to shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course or from truth; to play foul play.

2. I would think better of himself, than that he would wilfully prevaricate

3. In the civil law, to collude; as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.

4. In English law, to undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

Prevaricate [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

To pervert; to corrupt; to evade by a quibble. [But in a transitive sense, this word is seldom or never used.]

Prevaricate [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. To shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course, or from truth; to speak with equivocation; to shuffle; to quibble; as, he prevaricates in his statement.

2. To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.

3. To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

Prevaricate [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert.

Prevaricated [Imperfect tense and past participle] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Prevaricate