conns

verb

variants also cons
present tense third-person singular of conn
as in pilots
to operate or control the course of there was white-knuckle tension as the captain conned the gunboat through the mine-infested harbor

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of conns Elsewhere, a gang of highway bandits cons an unsuspecting family into stopping by the roadside, only to violently kill them, burn their bodies, and strip their car for parts. — Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2026 Keith arrests our thinking, and cons us into suppressing our critical faculties with the same kind of internalized surveillance that philosopher Michel Foucault broke down to describe a prison’s use of the panopticon in Discipline and Punish. — Literary Hub, 19 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for conns
  1. pilots
  2. steers
Verb
  • Heath pilots a fighter jet, deploys bombs in foreign countries, and thwarts cyberattacks, all after remarkably cursory and casual conversations with a government official.
    — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Manuel Varela, who also pilots Goodie, says the drone has switchable nozzles for whatever the cleaning job calls for.
    — Delia Rose Sauer, Miami Herald, 15 July 2026
Definition of pilots
Verb
  • Camden generally steers private clients away from designing for stays longer than 30 days, though some have asked his firm to plan for a year or more.
    — Megan Buerger, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2026
  • But since these girls don’t have anything that looks like conventional adulthood waiting for them, the film wisely steers them away from maturity and toward a kind of spiritual liberation.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of steers

Browse Nearby Words

connoting
conns
connubial
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Conns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/conns. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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