Tergiversation (Noun)
Meaning 1
The act of abandoning a party for cause.
Classification
Nouns denoting acts or actions.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 2
Falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language.
Classification
Nouns denoting acts or actions.
Examples
- The politician's critics accused her of using tergiversation to avoid giving a direct answer to questions about her role in the scandal.
- By responding to the inquiry with vague platitudes, the company's CEO was guilty of tergiversation, obscuring the truth behind a veil of ambiguous language.
- The jury was ultimately unmoved by the defendant's lawyer's tergiversation, which only served to highlight the inconsistencies in her client's alibi.
- During the debate, the challenger's opponents pointed out his history of tergiversation, accusing him of frequently using equivocal language to cover up his lack of knowledge on the issues.
- The fact-checking website took the author to task for using tergiversation to subtly distort the findings of the scientific study and make them conform to his preconceived narrative.