as in tempting
to lead away from a usual or proper course by offering some pleasure or advantage
tacky souvenir shops to which first-time tourists had been decoyed into spending their hard-earned money
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 decoying
What these guys really care about is decoying ducks in and seeing the show.
—
Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 9 Oct. 2025
Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 9 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decoying
Verb
-
Only the magnetic Ksenia (Vikander) is beyond his control, tempting him away from this dangerous game.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Feb. 2026
-
As Mercury stations retrograde in your sign, confidence wavers and old narratives resurface, tempting you to retreat or overexplain.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
3 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Ben Affleck returned for his fourth Super Bowl effort for Dunkin’, this time luring Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady, Jason Alexander, Jasmine Guy, Tom Brady and Jaleel White for a spot that evoked 1990s sitcoms.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
9 Feb. 2026
-
Both Kelly and Landfair were adamant about their love, and a 17-year-old Landfair was so deep under her abuser’s spell that her parents had no hope of successfully luring her away from Kelly.—
Cheyenne Roundtree,
Rolling Stone,
31 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
This is so outrageous that even Creepy Professor Oliver McCreepenstein, a middle-aged married man currently seducing his 17-year-old student, is aghast.—
Kathleen Walsh,
Vulture,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Always on the phone, Evans was soon seducing and scrapping with everyone from Frank Sinatra (who threatened to pull Mia Farrow off Rosemary’s Baby) to suits refusing to cast a washed up Marlon Brando in The Godfather.—
Hadley Hall Meares,
Vanity Fair,
9 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Gage’s Robert is also no slouch in the come-on department, gushing over Jack’s appearance and enticing him by wearing women’s lingerie and doing you don’t want to know what else.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Feb. 2026
-
There aren’t exactly enticing free-agent options at the position, either, so maybe general manager Brian Gutekunst uses his second-round pick on a cornerback and develops him behind Nixon and Carrington Valentine for now.—
The Athletic NFL Staff,
New York Times,
12 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
The lengths to which users have gone to try to keep GPT-4o alive, whether by persuading the company to keep it online or by preserving it themselves, speak to the importance the chatbot has taken in the lives of some of its users, potentially because of the nature of human psychology.—
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez,
Fortune,
10 Feb. 2026
-
In other words, if Warsh were to succeed in persuading his colleagues on the Board and FOMC in slimming down the Fed — something not at all sure given the limited power of the Chair — there would be difficult tradeoffs.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
8 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
The replies are mostly AI bots, or rage-baiting stan accounts.—
Larisha Paul,
Rolling Stone,
15 Feb. 2026
-
Never mind foul-baiting and load management, the hottest topics circling the NBA in 2026 are tanking and the opposite – trying too hard to win, allegedly, in the Clippers’ case.—
Mirjam Swanson,
Oc Register,
15 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Decoying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decoying. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
