EQUIVOCAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Equivocal

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/ɪkwˈɪvəkəl/ Listen

Equivocal

adjective

Open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature or significance; or (often) intended to mislead. Synonym: ambiguous. "The polling had a complex and equivocal (or ambiguous) message for potential female candidates" , "The officer's equivocal behavior increased the victim's uneasiness" , "Popularity is an equivocal crown" , "An equivocal response to an embarrassing question"

Open to question. "His conscience reproached him with the equivocal character of the union into which he had forced his son"

Uncertain as a sign or indication.

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"Equivocal" Quotes from Famous Books

... and elaborate, and—equivocal. In it you remind me, menacingly, of the possibilities of progress, you posit that love is at best artificial, and you apotheosise the brain. As an emancipated rationality, you say you cut yourself loose from the convention of ...

— The Kempton-Wace Letters • Jack London

... in later Spanish history, and it resulted in cumbrous ineffectiveness. Interminable inquiry and discussion ended frequently only in suspension of judgment or a divided report. Points of policy of imminent importance had to await a dilatory investigation and equivocal conclusions. This impotence of the central organs of government did not come in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella and their immediate successors, and the growing inefficiency of the councils was long overcome by the resolution of the monarchs. Nevertheless the system was part of the price ...

— European Background Of American History - (Vol. I of The American Nation: A History) • Edward Potts Cheyney

... attention of Tallien, the son of the Marquis of Bercy's butler and ci-devant lawyer's clerk, who had blossomed into "a Terrorist of the first water." He obtained her release and she became his mistress. She took advantage of the equivocal but influential position which she had attained to engage in a vile traffic. She and her paramour amassed a huge fortune by accepting money from the unfortunate prisoners who were threatened with the fate which she had so narrowly ...

— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring

... equivocal form of expression, that flagellation was threatened, Taddy obeyed, still feeling ...

— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) • Various

... of Michigan. Mr. Tilden was not an orator, and did not follow the example of Mr. Seymour or Mr. Greeley in going before the people, but skillfully and quietly directed all the movements of the canvass. In spite of his personal fidelity to hard money, the equivocal position of his party was used against him with great effect. The fact that the Republicans had passed the Resumption measure, and that the Democrats had demanded the repeal of its most important feature, made a clear and sharp issue, and the pronounced record of Mr. Hayes as the leader ...

— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

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