Feb 10, 2010 This week's theme

Verbs



This week's words

castigate

disport

prevaricate

affranchise

obnubilate

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prevaricate PRONUNCIATION: (pri-VAR-i-kayt) MEANING: verb intr.: To avoid telling the truth by being ambiguous, evading, or misleading.



ETYMOLOGY: From Latin praevaricari (to straddle, to collude), from varicare (to straddle), from varus (knock-kneed, bent outwards). To prevaricate is to straddle the boundary between truth and falsehood.



USAGE: "Our presidents and their advisors, from Kennedy to Nixon and Ford, prevaricated, invented and outright lied for years about the course and casualties of the war."

Clancy Sigal; Caught in a Fantasy Amid Subterfuge; Los Angeles Times; Jun 29, 2001.



See more usage examples of prevaricate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Philosophers / must ultimately find / their true perfection / in knowing all / the follies of mankind / - by introspection. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)





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