| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | avoid an issue |
| Synonyms: | beat around the bush, beg the question, blow hot and cold, cavil, cloud the issue, con, cop a plea, cop out, cover up, dodge, double-talk, elude, escape, eschew, evade, falsify, fence, fib, flip-flop, fudge, give run around, hedge, hem and haw, jive, lie, mince words, palter, parry, pass the buck, prevaricate, pussyfoot, quibble, run around, shuck, shuffle, sidestep, sit on the fence, stonewall, tell white lie, tergiversate, tergiverse, waffle, weasel |
| Antonyms: | face, meet, speak on |
| Main Entry: | prevaricate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | deceive; stretch the truth |
| Synonyms: | beat around the bush, beg the question, belie, cavil, con, distort, dodge, equivocate, evade, exaggerate, fabricate, falsify, fib, garble, hedge, invent, jive, lie*, misrepresent, misspeak, palter, phony up, put on*, quibble, shift, shuffle, tergiversate |
| Antonyms: | tell truth |
| Main Entry: | hem and haw |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | hesitate |
| Synonyms: | back and fill, beat around the bush, beg the question, dance around, equivocate, euphemize, fudge and mudge, hum and haw, mince words, shilly-shally, tapdance |