1732 Compl. Coll. Rep., Lyes, & Stories ii. 53 Here's Bo-Peep.—Pious falavering.—A Protestant Mask under two Faces.

1778 F. Burney Evelina I. xx. 134 A truce with all this palavering.

1833 B. N. Webster Paul Clifford i. i. 14 None of your palavering, it won't do.—Who do you stop out with every night, eh?

1846 H. Melville Typee II. xxii. 204 A whole swarm gather about it [sc. a stone], and, after a vast deal of palavering, lift it up among them.

1904 J. London Sea-wolf iii. 23 The captain shrugged his shoulders. ‘Then we'll drop him over without any palavering, unless our clerical-looking castaway has the burial service at sea by heart.’

1978 J. Updike Coup (1979) iv. 143 Subsequent palavering in the stirred-up caravan failed to discover any purpose to the raid.

2003 Western Farm Press (Nexis) 1 Mar. 5 The politicking, posturing and palavering continues in Sacramento as Gov. Gray Davis and the legislature try find a way to raise the revenue shortfall.

1764 S. Foote Mayor of Garret ii. 33 Have a..caution that [he]..does not cajole you; he is a damn'd palavering fellow.

1796 T. Morton Way to get Married iii. iii. 59 He told a palavering story about distresses, and his dear daughter, and his wife's funeral, and a parcel of balderdash.

1847 L. Hunt Men, Women, & Bks. (1876) 91 Palavering rascals, who come, hail-fellow-well-met.

1857 J. P. Simpson Second Love i. i. 5 It would only be right if Miss Elinor were to love him instead of that fellow, who comes making such palavering speeches to her.

1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. v. 91 I could..sue to her as a palavering Irish beggar sues for alms.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 274/2 Oceanus, the well-meaning palavering old mentor, and Hermes, the blustering and futile jack-in-office.

1997 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Sept. g6 Her husband is a philandering louse and her father a palavering lush.