hoodwink
verb
Did you know?
We usually use the word wink to refer to a brief shutting of one eye, but hoodwink draws on an older and more obscure meaning of wink covered in our Unabridged Dictionary: “to close one’s eyes.” To hoodwink someone originally was to effectively do that kind of winking for the person; it meant to “cover someone’s eyes,” as with a hood or a blindfold. This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. “The public ... is as easily hood-winked,” wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for decades—and today, that meaning of the word is far from winking out.
Examples of hoodwink in a Sentence
Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 18 June 2025
Read: How the CIA hoodwinked Hollywood Washington left his most significant intelligence legacy as the nation’s first president.
—James Santel, The Atlantic, 8 May 2025
For moviegoers hoping to get hoodwinked, the wait is over.
—Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 1 May 2025
When Biden badly botched the debate, inflaming fears about his age, donors felt the campaign continued to hoodwink them, despite outwardly expressing their concerns to aides.
—Amie Parnes, The Hill, 24 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hoodwink
Cite this Entry
“Hoodwink.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoodwink. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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hoodwink
verb
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