All beat around the bush synonyms

verb beat around the bush

• avoid — If you avoid something unpleasant that might happen, you take action in order to prevent it from happening.
• deceive — If you deceive someone, you make them believe something that is not true, usually in order to get some advantage for yourself.
• avoid — If you avoid something unpleasant that might happen, you take action in order to prevent it from happening.
• hesitate — to be reluctant or wait to act because of fear, indecision, or disinclination: She hesitated to take the job.
• dodge — to elude or evade by a sudden shift of position or by strategy: to dodge a blow; to dodge a question.
• confound — If someone or something confounds you, they make you feel surprised or confused, often by showing you that your opinions or expectations of them were wrong.
• thwart — to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.
• puzzle — a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.
• outwit — to get the better of by superior ingenuity or cleverness; outsmart: to outwit a dangerous opponent.
• frustrate — to make (plans, efforts, etc.) worthless or of no avail; defeat; nullify: The student's indifference frustrated the teacher's efforts to help him.
• baffle — If something baffles you, you cannot understand it or explain it.
• foil — to cover or back with foil.
• stall — a pretext, as a ruse, trick, or the like, used to delay or deceive.
• stonewall — to engage in stonewalling.
• shun — to keep away from (a place, person, object, etc.), from motives of dislike, caution, etc.; take pains to avoid.
• flee — to run away, as from danger or pursuers; take flight.
• outrun — to run faster or farther than.
• hinder — to cause delay, interruption, or difficulty in; hamper; impede: The storm hindered our progress.
• slow — moving or proceeding with little or less than usual speed or velocity: a slow train.
• halt — to falter, as in speech, reasoning, etc.; be hesitant; stumble.
• stop — to cease from, leave off, or discontinue: to stop running.
• stay — (of a ship) to change to the other tack.
• suspend — to hang by attachment to something above: to suspend a chandelier from the ceiling.
• put off — to move or place (anything) so as to get it into or out of a specific location or position: to put a book on the shelf.
• interrupt — to cause or make a break in the continuity or uniformity of (a course, process, condition, etc.).
• postpone — to put off to a later time; defer: He has postponed his departure until tomorrow.
• hamper — to hold back; hinder; impede: A steady rain hampered the progress of the work.
• fly — to move through the air using wings.
• shy — bashful; retiring.
• stump — the lower end of a tree or plant left after the main part falls or is cut off; a standing tree trunk from which the upper part and branches have been removed.
• double — twice as large, heavy, strong, etc.; twofold in size, amount, number, extent, etc.: a double portion; a new house double the size of the old one.
• duck — any of numerous wild or domesticated web-footed swimming birds of the family Anatidae, especially of the genus Anas and allied genera, characterized by abroad, flat bill, short legs, and depressed body.
• bilk — To bilk someone out of something, especially money, means to cheat them out of it.
• shirk — to evade (work, duty, responsibility, etc.).
• ditch — a long, narrow excavation made in the ground by digging, as for draining or irrigating land; trench.
• circumvent — If someone circumvents a rule or restriction, they avoid having to obey the rule or restriction, in a clever and perhaps dishonest way.
• shuck — a husk or pod, as the outer covering of corn, hickory nuts, chestnuts, etc.
• pussyfoot — to go or move in a stealthy or cautious manner.
• shuffle — to walk without lifting the feet or with clumsy steps and a shambling gait.
• fence — a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etc., usually made of posts and wire or wood, used to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary.
• sidestep — to step to one side.
• waffle — waffling language.
• prevaricate — to speak falsely or misleadingly; deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; lie.
• lie — Jonas, 1880–1940, U.S. painter, born in Norway.
• fib — a small or trivial lie; minor falsehood.
• flip-flop — Informal. a sudden or unexpected reversal, as of direction, belief, attitude, or policy.
• fudge — a small stereotype or a few lines of specially prepared type, bearing a newspaper bulletin, for replacing a detachable part of a page plate without the need to replate the entire page.
• falsify — to make false or incorrect, especially so as to deceive: to falsify income-tax reports.
• tergiversate — to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
• palter — to talk or act insincerely or deceitfully; lie or use trickery.