Use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing oneself.
with direct speech‘“Not that we are aware of,” she equivocated’
‘The law students squirmed and equivocated to avoid confronting my question.’
‘At least it is not, so long as we avoid equivocating on the notion of satisfying a desire.’
‘They want justice to be seen to be done, particularly where perpetrators remained quiet, equivocated or evaded the truth.’
‘In fact, Finlayson is a little wordy even with his own words, equivocating and hesitating to offer an opinion of his own, as if lacking in confidence.’
‘Canadians are fundamentally suspicious of any party that appears to equivocate about rights.’
‘In the face of interrogation by members of the committee, you waffled, equivocated, lied, feigned lack of memory, and even remained silent, in the face of the most probing questions.’
‘Bishops obfuscate, cardinals equivocate and Church spokesmen prevaricate as the tide of media condemnation surges around them.’
‘They furrow their concerned brows and squint gravely towards the cameras in their field camo but all you hear is hedge and evade and dodge and divert and equivocate.’
‘A Wednesday news item on the Prime Minister's intention to refuse to accept a salary increase reveals another minister equivocating on the issue.’
‘After initially equivocating, the ruler finally expressed on 15 August 1947 a preference to join Pakistan.’
‘It sounded like I was equivocating; that it wasn't a real apology.’
‘I usually do quirky, or poignant, or lyrical - weak and equivocating.’
‘How is it, then, that a man so unequivocal in his own yardstick for cultural superiority in all things, despite admitted unsavoury elements, suddenly equivocates like a fox when asked about censorship?’
‘If he equivocates on the urgency to end the occupation, he's spirited in his insistence that the constitution will be Islamic.’
‘You either love it or hate it, because this never equivocates.’
‘Stupidity is brief and guileless, while wit equivocates and hides.’
‘After kissing the subject, he just tapers off, equivocates, engages in euphemism.’
‘He has equivocated, frustrating even ardent supporters like Tauzin; and when he has finally acted, it has been to prolong rather than shorten the telecom slump.’
‘In the 1950s and 1960s, the center equivocated during the great battles for civil rights.’
prevaricate, be evasive, be non-committal, be vague, be ambiguous, dodge the issue, evade the issue, beat about the bush, hedge, hedge one's bets, fudge the issue
Late Middle English (in the sense ‘use a word in more than one sense’): from late Latin aequivocat- ‘called by the same name’, from the verb aequivocare, from aequivocus (see equivocal).
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