[agent-n. f. TERGIVERSATE: see -OR; cf. late L. tergiversātor boggler, laggard.] laggard.] One who tergiversates; a renegade; a shuffler.
1682. Pelling, Apostate Protestant, 45–6. Since therefore that Blessed Prince was Resisted and Murder’d by men whose Principles and Practices were of a far different nature and utterly inconsistent with Christianity, how could the Doctor chuse (unless he would have been a Tergiversator) but take notice thereof, and shew the difference by making a Comparison?
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 225. The same learned Arian Tergiversator.
1829. Southey, Lett. (1856), IV. 129. [To] deliver King and country from a set of tergiversators.
1855. J. Strang, Glasgow & Clubs (1856), 485. Nothing better than a political recreant and tergiversator.
So Tergiversatory a., shuffing, shifty.
1891. Sat. Rev., 12 Sept., 295/2. The tergiversatory performances of Mr. —— and Mr. ——.
