tergiversation
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary:
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Ter·gi·ver·sa·tion
n.
[L. tergiversario: cf. F. tergiversation.]
1. The act of tergiversating; a shifting; shift; subterfuge; evasion.
Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being freer from passions and tergiversations.Abp. Bramhall.
2. Fickleness of conduct; inconstancy; change.
The colonel, after all his tergiversations, lost his life in the king's service.Clarendon.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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tergiversation
noun
- An instance of defecting from or abandoning a cause: apostasy, defection, recreance, recreancy. See approach/retreat, trust/distrust.
- The use or an instance of equivocal language: ambiguity, equivocation, equivoque, euphemism, hedge, prevarication, shuffle, weasel word. Informal waffle. See clear/unclear.
- An expression or term liable to more than one interpretation: ambiguity, double-entendre, equivocality, equivocation, equivoque. See clear/unclear.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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