PREVAR'ICATE, v.i. [L. proevaricor; proe and varico, varicor, to straddle.] 1. To shuffle; to quibble; to shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course or from truth; to play foul play. I would think better of himself, than that he would wilfully prevaricate.2. In the civil law, to collude; as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.3. In English law, to undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.PREVAR'ICATE, v.t. To pervert; to corrupt; to evade by a quibble. [But in a transitive sense,this word is seldom or never used.]
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