Palter

//ˈpɔl.tɚ// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To talk insincerely; to prevaricate or equivocate in speech or actions.

    "Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter."

  2. 2
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information wordnet
  3. 3
    To talk insincerely; to prevaricate or equivocate in speech or actions.; To give a false impression by selective use of true but misleading statements.
  4. 4
    To trifle. archaic

    "Palter out your time in the penal statutes."

  5. 5
    To haggle.

    "Herceler. Voyez to haggle, to dodge. N.b. Cotgrave defines herceler/harceler by example: "to haggle, hucke, hedge, or paulter long in the buying of commodity"."

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  1. 6
    To babble; to chatter.

Synonyms

All synonyms
around the bushback and fillbargainbeat aboutbeat around bushbeat around the bush

Example

More examples

"Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter."

Etymology

Probably from Middle English *palter (“rag, trifle, worthless thing”), from Middle Low German palter (“rag, cloth”). More at paltry.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.