prevaricate

Meaning

To deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
To shift or turn from direct speech or behaviour; to deviate from the truth; to evade the truth; to waffle or be (intentionally) ambiguous.
To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
To undertake something falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

From the participle stem of Latin praevāricārī, from prae- + vāricāre, from vārus, from Proto-Indo-European *wā- (the root of various).

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