cozening

verb

present participle of cozen
1
as in deceiving
to cause to believe what is untrue cozened several elderly ladies into believing that he was intending marriage

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cheating
to rob by the use of trickery or threats cozened scores of people by persuading them to hand over funds that he would "invest"

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cozening
  1. deceiving
  2. cheating
  3. tricking
  4. plucking
  5. fooling
  6. stinging
  7. squeezing
  8. hustling
Verb
  • Looking at wins and losses is useful and necessary, but often deceiving as to which team is better.
    — Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 7 Oct. 2026
  • But 3-0 marks can be deceiving heading into a battle of unbeatens at home against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of deceiving
Verb
  • His political career, which included a spell as the Conservative Party’s deputy chairman, was interrupted by a period in prison in 2001 after he was found guilty of lying and cheating in a 1987 libel case against The Daily Star newspaper.
    — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 5 Oct. 2026
  • For practical purposes, the games belong to the house and the house gets to decide what’s cheating and what isn’t.
    — Kit Chellel, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of cheating
Verb
  • RatHat relies heavily on tricking someone into installing a malicious Android app and approving powerful permissions.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Wardle found that a simple variation of ClickFix attack—a technique that has become remarkably effective in tricking people into infecting their devices—is all that’s required for an attacker to take control of a Muse account.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of tricking
Verb
  • LLMs are great at finding blowups that exist—at searching the infinite landscape of fluid scenarios and plucking out the precise situation that breaks the equations.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Fortunately, many dahlia insect problems in September can be solved by walking through the garden in the morning and plucking the offending insects off the plants by hand, then dropping them into a container of soapy water.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of plucking
Verb
  • In the highlight, Marshall retrieves the ball and oddly fires it back to the infield, fooling no one.
    — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Anybody hoping that a Netanyahu defeat in October and the emergence of a less controversial successor will reset the table is likely fooling themselves.
    — Daniel DePetris, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of fooling
Verb
  • That money has been transformed into frequent online and television ads either stinging or lauding the two candidates.
    — John Aguilar, Denver Post, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Indy struggled against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in its season opener, then took a stinging 33-30 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
    — Elise Devlin, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of stinging
Verb
  • Instead, Israel's military has expanded its control to roughly 70% of Gaza, squeezing more than 2 million Palestinians near the sea's edge.
    — Anas Baba, NPR, 10 Oct. 2026
  • Kyiv's retaliatory attacks mean Russian exports are now also stuck, further squeezing global supply.
    — Jenni Reid, CNBC, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of squeezing
Verb
  • After hustling in the industry for the better part of a decade, her profile has completely exploded over the past few months.
    — Ethan Millman, HollywoodReporter, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Devers, who finished with three hits, eschewed his power for small ball in the fifth, laying down a surprise bunt for a single, then hustling home on Susac’s sacrifice fly.
    — Justice delos Santos, Mercury News, 31 July 2026
Definition of hustling
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.

Browse Nearby Words

cozeners
cozening
cozens
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Cite this Entry

“Cozening.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cozening. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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