English Dictionary

EQUIVOCATE

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does equivocate mean? 

EQUIVOCATE (verb)
  The verb EQUIVOCATE has 1 sense:

1. be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold informationplay

  Familiarity information: EQUIVOCATE used as a verb is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


EQUIVOCATE (verb)

 Conjugation: 
Present simple: I / you / we / they equivocate  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation ... he / she / it equivocates  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past simple: equivocated  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past participle: equivocated  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
-ing form: equivocating  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation


Sense 1

Meaning:

Be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

beat around the bush; equivocate; palter; prevaricate; tergiversate

Hypernyms (to "equivocate" is one way to...):

misinform; mislead (give false or misleading information to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

equivocation (falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language)

equivocation (intentionally vague or ambiguous)

equivocation (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)

equivocator (a respondent who avoids giving a clear direct answer)


 Context examples 


"But it is not that that I spoke about," her mother equivocated.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Houyhnhnmland, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master, I was able in the compass of two years (although I confess with the utmost difficulty) to remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my species; especially the Europeans.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." (English proverb)

"Shameful is not the one who doesn't know, but the one who doesn't ask." (Azerbaijani proverb)

"The beginning of anger is madness and the end of it is regret." (Arabic proverb)

"It hits like a grip on a pig." (Dutch proverb)



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