equivocate
verbUS /ɪˈkwɪvəˌkeɪt/
Etymology From Late Middle English equivocaten, from Medieval Latin aequivocātus, perfect passive participle of aequivocō (“to be called by the same name”), from Late Latin aequivocus (“ambiguous, equivocal”). Compare French équivoque.
1
To speak using double meaning; to speak ambiguously, unclearly or doubtfully, with intent to deceive; to vacillate in one's answers, responding with equivoques.
- Knock. Knock, knock. Who's there in th'other Deuils Name? Faith here's an Equiuocator, that could ſweare in both the Scales againſt eyther Scale, who committed Treaſon enough for Gods ſake, yet could not equiuocate to Heauen: oh come in, Equiuocator.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 137, column 1:
- All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate.1687, Edward Stillingfleet, The Unreasonableness of Separation: Or, An Impartial Account of the History, Nature and Pleas of the Present Separation from the Communion of the Church of England:
2
To render equivocal or ambiguous.
- He equivocated his vow by a mental reservation1647, George Buck, Reign of Richard the Third:
- Derived terms
- equivocal, equivocatingly, equivocator, nonequivocating
- Related terms
- prevaricate