lie, prevaricate, equivocate, palter, fib mean to tell an untruth. lie is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty.
lied about where he had been prevaricate softens the bluntness of lie by implying quibbling or confusing the issue.
during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricateequivocate implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another.
equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors palter implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises.
a swindler paltering with his investors fib applies to a telling of a trivial untruth.
fibbed about the price of the new suit
Examples of fib in a Sentence
Noun
I have to admit that I told a fib when I said I enjoyed the movie.
Is she telling fibs again?
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fib.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.