PALTER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Palter

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verb

Palter v. i. (past & past part. paltered; pres. part. paltering)

To haggle. (Obs.)

To act in insincere or deceitful manner; to play false; to equivocate; to shift; to dodge; to trifle. "Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter." "Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with eternal God for power."

To babble; to chatter. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Palter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Palter" Quotes from Famous Books

... and determine this point, whether it be in our power to deliberate on peace or war. If the country may be at peace, if it depends on us (to begin with this), I say we ought to maintain peace; and I call upon the affirmant to move a resolution, to take some measure, and not to palter with us. But if another, having arms in his hand and a large force around him, amuses you with the name of peace while he carries on the operations of war, what is left but to defend yourselves? You may profess to be at peace ...

— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various

... luxury, the fruits of foreign conquest, were beginning to make themselves felt. To Juvenal it falls to denounce the triumph of these corroding influences. He has nothing of the almost pathetic philosophic detachment of Persius, nor of the easy-going compromise of Horace. He does not palter with problems of right and wrong, nor hesitate over his moral judgements; casuistry is wholly alien to his temper. It is indignation makes the verse, and from this fact, together with his rhetorical training, his chief merits and his chief failings spring. ...

— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

Words linked to "Palter" : equivocate, beat around the bush, paltering, misinform, prevaricate, tergiversate, mislead