rare. [ad. L. tergiversārī to TERGIVERSATE; so F. tergiverser.]
† 1. trans. To turn backwards, to reverse. (In quot. in ppl. adj. Tergiversed.) Obs.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 23. A stay made of the planets course and heauens motion, by reason that primum mobile, in a tergiuersed violence of opposite race to the rest, runs a course against the haire.
2. intr. = TERGIVERSATE. Hence Tergiversing vbl. sb., tergiversation.
1675. (title) Quakerism Canvassed: Robin Barclay … found guilty of blasphemy, treason, lying, shifting, quibling, tergiversing, &c.
1688. J. Grubb, St. George for England, 46. The Briton never tergivers’d, But was for adverse drubbing.
1718. Entertainer, No. 36. 243. If they don’t intirely tergiverse, and become Deserters.
1896. H. Reid, Cameronian Apostle, vii. 109. The arbitrary dissolution of one Assembly,… the ‘tergiversing’ of the Moderator and Clerk.
