gullible
adjective
Did you know?
“Let a gull steal my fries once, shame on the gull; let a gull steal my fries twice, shame on me.” So goes the classic, oft-repeated seaside maxim reminding people to guard against being gullible. Okay, that’s not really how the old saw goes, but on the off chance that you believed our little trick, you yourself were, however briefly, gullible—that is, “easily duped.” The adjective gullible grew out of the older verb gull, meaning “to deceive or take advantage of.” (That gull originally meant “to guzzle or gulp greedily,” and comes from an even older gull meaning “throat, gullet.”) Another relative is the noun gull, referring to a person who is easy to cheat. However, no matter how much the seabirds we call gulls love to pilfer our potatoes, that avian gull has no relation, and is instead of Celtic origin—we promise.
Synonyms of gullible
Examples of gullible in a Sentence
MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Sep. 2025
Edelman brings goofy charm to Adam, a gullible and guileless father of four, while Key is consistently funny as the simpering Ken.
—Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Sep. 2025
Rather than feeling triumphant at how believable ELIZA was, Weizenbaum was depressed by how gullible people seemed to be.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2025
Teenagers, despite our best efforts to educate them in open-minded ways, are gullible and therefore vulnerable.
—Eli Amdur, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gullible
Cite this Entry
“Gullible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gullible. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
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