1
as in to negotiate
to plan out usually with subtle skill or care
let me look at my schedule and see if I can't finagle a visit to the museum
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to cheat
to use dishonest methods to achieve a goal
she'll finagle until she gets exactly what she wants
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of finagle
This whole thing seems staged, planned, finagled, massaged, bamboozled, lollygagged, and all sorts of other long, silly-sounding words that may not necessarily apply to this situation.
—
Brian Moylan, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2025
Can’t finagle a flight to Hawaii right now?
—John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2025
Having finagled an invite from Prater’s steely assistant, Charley (Uma Thurman, sporting an asymmetrical bob and a disgusted glower), Dexter infiltrates the group looking for villains to bring to his kill table.
—EW.com, 10 July 2025
This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for finagle
Brian Moylan, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2025
Can’t finagle a flight to Hawaii right now?
—John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2025
Having finagled an invite from Prater’s steely assistant, Charley (Uma Thurman, sporting an asymmetrical bob and a disgusted glower), Dexter infiltrates the group looking for villains to bring to his kill table.
—EW.com, 10 July 2025
This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for finagle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for finagle
Verb
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The White House has not yet negotiated lower prices on IVF drugs from other manufacturers.—
Aria Bendix,
NBC news,
16 Oct. 2025
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The only long-term solution — in my view — is a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank whose borders are negotiated with Israel.—
Thomas L. Friedman,
Mercury News,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Guys were continually getting above pucks and taking hard strides back, not cheating for offense.—
Brad Elliott Schlossman,
Twin Cities,
18 Oct. 2025
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Regarding the subject of cheating and whether students might use AI to write essays, edX told Fortune that GradyAI has cheating detection built into its algorithms that can be turned on or off depending on the application.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
15 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In a feat of logistics, the production miraculously arranged the shooting schedule so that every principal actor’s final scene on the show was also their last day of filming — something the Duffers have been freshly reliving again and again in the edit bay.—
Kate Aurthur,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
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However, for years, police suspected that Charles arranged the murder of Markel.—
Grethel Aguila,
Miami Herald,
15 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The ethical dimension of creating and manipulating living brain cells remains under discussion.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
20 Oct. 2025
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Don't Look Now manipulates audiences' minds, mixing elements of the occult with the overwhelming need for hope into a plot twist audiences will find difficult to swallow.—
Steven Thrash,
Entertainment Weekly,
19 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Finagle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagle. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.
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