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 Loading your audio article State authorities on Friday returned more than $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a Connecticut resident who was hoodwinked earlier this year in a phishing scam. —

Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 9 Aug. 2024 Well, in this case the American people need to know if their president and the Democrat Party are hoodwinking their fellow Americans. —

Gary Franks, Hartford Courant, 2 Aug. 2024 But when the craft’s command module burns up upon re-entry, the astronauts become hunted men—living proof of a scheme to hoodwink the American people. —

Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 July 2024 In a 47-page court filing in November, Holmes' attorneys said the prosecution failed to prove a cornerstone of its case: that Holmes hoodwinked investors while knowing full well the deficiencies of her product. —

Max Zahn, ABC News, 11 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for hoodwink

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoodwink.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.