palter

• POS: Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: pal=ter

CIDE DICTIONARY

palter, v. i. [See Paltry.].

•  To haggle.  Cotgrave.  [1913 Webster]
•  To act in insincere or deceitful manner; to play false; to equivocate; to shift; to dodge; to trifle.  [1913 Webster]

  "Romans, that have spoke the word,
  And will not palter."  [1913 Webster]

  "Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
  Nor paltered with eternal God for power."  [1913 Webster]
•  To babble; to chatter.  [1913 Webster]

palter, v. t. 

 To trifle with; to waste; to squander in paltry ways or on worthless things.  Beau. & Fl.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

palter, v.intr.
1 haggle or equivocate.
2 trifle.

Derivative

palterer n.

Etymology

16th c.: orig. unkn.

THESAURUS

palter

around the bush, back and fill, bargain, beat about, beg the question, bicker, boggle, cavil, chaffer, choplogic, dicker, dodge, duck, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, falsify, fence, fib, hedge, hem and haw, higgle, huckster, hum and haw, lie, mince the truth, mince words, mystify, nitpick, obscure, parry, pick nits, prevaricate, pussyfoot, quibble, shift, shuffle, shy, sidestep, split hairs, tergiversate, waffle, weasel

ROGET THESAURUS

palter

Irresolution

VB be irresolute, hang in suspense, keep in suspense, leave "ad referendum", think twice about, pause, dawdle, remain neuter, dillydally, hesitate, boggle, hover, dacker, hum and haw, demur, not know one's own mind, debate, balance, dally with, coquet with, will and will not, chaser-balancer, go halfway, compromise, make a compromise, be thrown off one's balance, stagger like a drunken man, be afraid, let 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would', falter, waver vacillate, change, retract, fluctuate, pendulate, alternate, keep off and on, play fast and loose, blow hot and cold, shuffle, palter, blink, trim.

Nonobservance

VB fail, neglect, omit, elude, evade, give the go-by to, set aside, ignore, shut one's eyes to, close one's eyes to, infringe, transgress, violate, pirate, break, trample under foot, do violence to, drive a coach and six through, discard, protest, repudiate, fling to the winds, set at naught, nullify, declare null and void, cancel, retract, go back from, be off, forfeit, go from one's word, palter, stretch a point, strain a point.

Falsehood

VB be false, be a liar, speak falsely, tell a lie, lie, fib, lie like a trooper, swear false, forswear, perjure oneself, bear false witness, misstate, misquote, miscite, misreport, misrepresent, belie, falsify, pervert, distort, put a false construction upon (misinterpret), prevaricate, equivocate, quibble, palter, palter to the understanding, repondre en Normand, trim, shuffle, fence, mince the truth, beat about the bush, blow hot and cold, play fast and loose, garble, gloss over, disguise, give a color to, give a gloss, put a gloss, put false coloring upon, color, varnish, cook, dress up, embroider, varnish right and puzzle wrong, exaggerate, blague, invent, fabricate, trump up, get up, force, fake, hatch, concoct, romance, cry 'wolf!', dissemble, dissimulate, feign, assume, put on, pretend, make believe, play possum, play false, play a double game, coquet, act a part, play a part, affect, simulate, pass off for, counterfeit, sham, make a show of, malinger, say the grapes are sour, cant, play the hypocrite, sham Abraham, faire pattes de velours, put on the mask, clean the outside of the platter, lie like a conjuror, hand out false colors, hold out false colors, sail under false colors, commend the poisoned chalice to the lips, ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces, deceive.