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.
Examples of gullible in a Sentence
Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2025
Bad spelling and grammar ensured that most users deleted the message, leaving only the most gullible users in the pipeline.
—Kevin Korte, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
As a gullible buyer starts to get nervous, the manager accidentally reveals that the salesman has been lying, torpedoing thousands of dollars in commission.
—Helen Shaw, New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2025
Bad spelling and grammar ensured that most users deleted the message, leaving only the most gullible users in the pipeline.
—Kevin Korte, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 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 3 May. 2025.
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