as in to cajole
to get (someone) to do something by gentle urging, special attention, or flattery
trying to coax their father into taking them on a ski trip, the teens mentioned what a great skier he is
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Recent Examples of coax
So Help Me God’s songs unfurl across five, seven, and even eight minutes, speaking on the perils of not knowing oneself, feeling suffocated by a dead-end relationship, and coaxing out the will to do better.
—
Kiana Mickles,
Pitchfork,
15 June 2026
Peters crouched down and used a little body language to try to coax the ball fair.
—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
14 June 2026
In 2024, Peruvian police dressed an officer in a bear costume on the eve of Valentine's Day and armed him with balloons and gifts to coax a female drug suspect from her home.
—
CBS News,
13 June 2026
While plant breeders have been able to coax other garden plants into re-blooming, this is not the case for peonies.
—
Nadia Hassani,
The Spruce,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for coax
Kiana Mickles,
Pitchfork,
15 June 2026
Peters crouched down and used a little body language to try to coax the ball fair.
—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
14 June 2026
In 2024, Peruvian police dressed an officer in a bear costume on the eve of Valentine's Day and armed him with balloons and gifts to coax a female drug suspect from her home.
—
CBS News,
13 June 2026
While plant breeders have been able to coax other garden plants into re-blooming, this is not the case for peonies.
—
Nadia Hassani,
The Spruce,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for coax
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coax
Verb
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An honest summary would still pass the buck to the voters on a grossly dishonest scheme, but at least the voters might recognize a description that doesn’t cajole, coax and mislead them.
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After years of lobbying, cajoling – virtually pleading – state lawmakers back in 2024 finally granted the state Lottery an online presence.
Verb
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Businesses set up signs, posters and international flags to lure locals and tourists alike, while the Miracle Theater hosted a watch party for the match between France and Senegal.
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Fallout The crisis has exposed divisions within González’s own party as her administration works to lure new investors to the island and remedy chronic power outages.
Verb
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One class in, and Hannah is thoroughly seduced both by Melanie’s flattery and by her therapyspeak approach to acting, with its talk of truth-telling and connecting to one’s body.
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Young women being preyed upon and seduced by rapacious Hollywood producers, stars and studio heads is a tired cliché, but like all clichés, it is based on reality.
Verb
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Obviously, Donnie being over there was enticing to me.
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For American diners of diverse backgrounds, chop suey struck an enticing balance between novelty and decipherability, which propelled it to national popularity even as the US government moved to exclude Chinese laborers from entering the country in 1882.
Verb
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Chef Albert was a restaurateur trying to wheedle a good review out of a tough restaurant critic.
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In a bid to rekindle the couple’s honeymoon phase, Yasmin troubleshoots by wheedling a chief executive role for him at payment processing company Tender (run by Max Minghella‘s inscrutable puppet-master Whitney Halberstram), and throwing her husband a lavish costume party for his 40th birthday.
Verb
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Rather than build a nest to attract a female, some males woo other males who have already built nests.
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The country also set out plans to build an AI industrial park called Kampong AI, set to open in 2028 with workspaces and housing facilities to woo AI start-ups.
Verb
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Rodríguez also said the country’s entire public and private healthcare network had been activated to treat the injured, urging doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to report immediately to their workplaces.
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Weber copped to working with the Wu administration to craft his $8-9 million amendment package, which Wu’s chief financial officer urged the Council to accept without additional amendments to avoid layoffs and loss of revenue.
Verb
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Setting the factory ablaze and escaping, Naim pauses for a minute when the Ryan-like monster appears at a window, begging to be released and claiming to be the human-being.
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The role required a physical and comedic register she had not previously been asked to sustain at this scale, which begs the question of whether playing someone this chaotic is sustainable for someone who describes herself, without hesitation, as directly opposite.
Cite this Entry
“Coax.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coax. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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