hoodwink

verb

hood·wink ˈhu̇d-ˌwiŋk

hoodwinked; hoodwinking; hoodwinks

Synonyms of hoodwink next

transitive verb

: to deceive by false appearance : dupe

people who allow themselves to be hoodwinked by such promises

archaic : blindfold

obsolete : hide

hoodwinker noun

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

Don't let yourself be hoodwinked into buying things you don't need. Tom Sawyer famously hoodwinked the other boys into thinking there was nothing more enjoyable than whitewashing a fence.

Recent Examples on the Web

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Charismatic leaders hoodwink highly intelligent, creative people, too. —

David Oliver, USA TODAY, 26 Oct. 2024 Haider staged a fake murder in an apparent effort to hoodwink Abbas and his bosses. —

Renee Maltezou, Cassell Bryan-Low, Yannis Souliotis and Phil Stewart, USA TODAY, 6 Oct. 2024 Many individuals and companies don’t report after they’ve been hoodwinked. —

Frank Teruel, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024 No doubt our ancestors found ingenious ways to hoodwink the enemy long before that. —

Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for hoodwink