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Deke originated as a shortened form of decoy. American writer Ernest Hemingway used deke as a noun referring to hunting decoys in a number of his works, including his 1950 novel Across the River and into the Trees ("I offered to put the dekes out with him"). In the 1940s, deke began appearing in ice-hockey contexts in Canadian print sources in reference to the act of faking an opponent out of position—much like how decoy is used for luring one into a trap. Today, deke has scored in many other sports, including baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. It has also occasionally checked its way into more general usage to refer to deceptive or evasive moves or actions.
Examples of deke in a Sentence
Michael Russo, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026
Two minutes later, Mayhew found some space, deked to his backhand, and beat Francis to increase the lead to three.
—Jack Murray, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Rodrigues deked Woll and snuck the puck past him for the Panthers’ third goal of the period.
—Adam Lichtenstein, Sun Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2026
John Wroblewski was overcome with emotion when Team USA women’s hockey star Megan Keller deked around a Canadian defender and scored the game-winning goal to bring the Americans a gold medal on Thursday.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 22 Feb. 2026
With only Canada goalie Jordan Binnington to beat, Haula deked him and buried the puck in the net.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 20 Feb. 2026
In overtime, which is played 3-on-3 rather than 5-on-5, Keller took a long pass from Taylor Heise, deked past a Canadian defender and lifted a shot over the pads and under the blocker of goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens for the game-winner, setting off a wild celebration.
—Jim Keyser, Idaho Statesman, 19 Feb. 2026
Tarasenko found the net on his team's first shot, scored off a third-period faceoff, then later deked around two defenders to set up a goal by Danila Yurov.
—CBS News, 17 Dec. 2025
With the ball in his arms and plenty of green in front of him, the sophomore sped down the KoMets’ sideline, made a move inside the Pioneer 40 to deke a final tackler and dashed across the other goal line.
—Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Deke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deke. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
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