prevaricate

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.]