Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who equivocates; a prevaricator.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who equivocates.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Agent noun of equivocate; one who equivocates.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a respondent who avoids giving a clear direct answer

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

to equivocate + -or

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Examples

  • John Shakespeare was a kind of equivocator: it's what you do when you're in a corner, when you can't be a Catholic and a loyal Englishman at the same time.

    Speaking in Tongues Smith, Zadie 2009

  • This kind of equivocator, while he says that all men are equal in certain fundamental respects, though some are su - perior to the rest in other respects, fails to notice (or to admit) that the other respects are at bottom only some of the fundamental ones described in dif - ferent words.

    LIBERALISM JOHN PLAMENATZ 1968

  • It took two terms of an intelligent commander-in-chief, and another moral equivocator, former law professor Bill Clinton, for the Republicans to search again for an unequivocal moral crusader with not a whole lot going on upstairs.

    James Marshall Crotty: Why Republicans Embrace Simpletons and How It Hurts America James Marshall Crotty 2011

  • In the Porter's scene in Act II of "Macbeth," equivocation comes in for a serious rhetorical battering: "Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales and against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven."

    A Blessing—Not a Curse Paul Levy 2011

  • By nature, Franco was an equivocator; his terms for joining the Nazi war effort were so high that Hitler was left complaining angrily of his ally's ingratitude.

    Taking A Separate Path David Pryce-Jones 2011

  • Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.

    Of Thieves & Equivocators 2008

  • Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.

    Archive 2008-01-20 2008

  • Then he responded by, apparently, unfiring them and saying he's offended but he'll unfire them, which makes him look at best like an equivocator and at worst like he doesn't have any scruples.

    Edwards On The Bloggers: "Personally Offended," But Believes In "Giving Everyone A Fair Shake" 2009

  • So the bottomline is that Obama and Edwards are right .. no one KNOWS where Hillary stands on the issues because she is an equivocator, a triangulator, a weasel par excellence!!

    Obama And Edwards Fault Hillary Over Iran Comments 2009

  • Not your standard liberal union-loving, leftist equivocator in my book.

    What Side Are You On? The Politics of History (Meetings) Tenured Radical 2009

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