beat around the bush

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

beat around the bush
    v 1: be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or
         withhold information [syn: {beat around the bush},
         {equivocate}, {tergiversate}, {prevaricate}, {palter}]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

47 Moby Thesaurus words for "beat around the bush":
      about the bush, around the bush, beat about, beat around,
      beg the question, bicker, boggle, cavil, choplogic, circumlocute,
      dodge, duck, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, fence,
      go round about, hedge, hem and haw, mystify, nitpick, obscure,
      palter, parry, periphrase, pick nits, prevaricate, pull away,
      pull back, pussyfoot, put off, quibble, recoil, sheer off, shift,
      shift off, shrink, shuffle, shy, shy away, shy off, sidestep,
      split hairs, step aside, swerve, tergiversate, ward off