hoodwink

verb

hood·​wink ˈhu̇d-ˌwiŋk 

hoodwinked; hoodwinking; hoodwinks

transitive verb

1

: to deceive by false appearance : dupe

people who allow themselves to be hoodwinked by such promises

2

archaic : blindfold

3

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.

Synonyms

• bamboozle
• beguile
• bluff
• buffalo
• burn
• catch
• con
• cozen
• deceive
• delude
• dupe
• fake out
• fool
• gaff
• gammon
• gull
• have
• have on [chiefly British]
• hoax
• hornswoggle
• humbug
• juggle
• misguide
• misinform
• mislead
• snooker
• snow
• spoof
• string along
• suck in
• sucker
• take in
• trick

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

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

Both lawsuits argue that the news outlets deliberately hoodwinked the public, in violation of state consumer protection laws. —New York Times, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

hood entry 1 + wink

First Known Use

1562, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for hoodwink

• bethink
• downlink
• groupthink
• rethink
• uplink
• blink
• brink
• chink
• cinque
• clink
• dink
• drink

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Kids Definition

hoodwink

verb

hood·​wink ˈhu̇d-ˌwiŋk 

: to deceive by false appearance : trick