Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Inclined or intended to evade.
- adjective Intentionally vague or ambiguous; equivocal.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Using evasion or artifice to avoid; shuffling; equivocating.
- Containing or characterized by evasion; artfully contrived for escape or elusion: as, an evasive answer; an evasive argument.
- Escaping the grasp or observation; not easily seized or comprehended; faintly or indistinctly perceived; elusive; vanishing: as, an evasive thought or idea; evasive colors.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Tending to evade, or marked by evasion; elusive; shuffling; avoiding by artifice.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Tending to avoid speaking openly or making revelations about oneself.
- adjective Directed towards
avoidance orescape ; evasive action.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective avoiding or escaping from difficulty or danger especially enemy fire
- adjective deliberately vague or ambiguous
Etymologies
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Examples
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District Court for the Northern District of Georgia rapped the plaintiffs lawyers and their client, North Carolina-based Costa & Grissom Machinery Co., for leaving essential words out of their paraphrase of a statute in a complaint, for what he called evasive or dishonest behavior in depositions and for maintaining an inapt claim long after they should have withdrawn it.
Law.com - Newswire 2010
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Grissom Machinery Co., for leaving essential words out of their paraphrase of a statute in a complaint, for what he called evasive or dishonest behavior in depositions and for maintaining an inapt claim long after they should have withdrawn it.
Law.com - Newswire 2010
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Taking a comment out of context and calling it "evasive" is quote-mining.
A New Book 2010
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Blathazar has signed on to adapt his film for a subtitle evasive North American audience.
Row Three » Review: Ben X - Where Cinema is more than just $100 Million productions 2008
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Tuesday night at 7, after a nine-month hunt for a suspect they described as evasive and uncooperative, law enforcement agents from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals arrested Monique Smith, 19, along Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick.
NYT > Home Page By ANDY NEWMAN 2011
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In fairness, though, the repetition of the sounds makes Obama sound hesitant and evasive, which is unfair.
"An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video...." Ann Althouse 2008
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In fairness, though, the repetition of the sounds makes Obama sound hesitant and evasive, which is unfair.
"An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video...." Ann Althouse 2008
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A U.N. spokesman says the Iraqis sent a new letter to clarify an earlier one which the United States called evasive, but a senior administration official dismissed the new letter accusing Iraq of playing games of denial and deception.
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It is more particularly for the sake of the concluding lines that I have quoted this passage; for evidently no portrait of Hawthorne at this period is at all exact which, fails to insist upon the constant struggle which must have gone on between his shyness and his desire to know something of life; between what may be called his evasive and his inquisitive tendencies.
Hawthorne (English Men of Letters Series) Henry James 1879
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Cardinal Rigali initially responded to the February grand jury report with what critics called evasive language, saying there were no priests in active ministry "who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them."
NYT > Home Page By ERIK ECKHOLM 2011
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