as in to evade
to elude (an opponent in a sports contest) by making a deceptive or agile movement
deked the lone defenseman with a deft move of his stick and went in for the breakaway
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Recent Examples of deke
Two minutes later, Mayhew found some space, deked to his backhand, and beat Francis to increase the lead to three.
—
Jack Murray, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Rodrigues deked Woll and snuck the puck past him for the Panthers’ third goal of the period.
—Adam Lichtenstein, Sun Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2026
With only Canada goalie Jordan Binnington to beat, Haula deked him and buried the puck in the net.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 20 Feb. 2026
In overtime, which is played 3-on-3 rather than 5-on-5, Keller took a long pass from Taylor Heise, deked past a Canadian defender and lifted a shot over the pads and under the blocker of goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens for the game-winner, setting off a wild celebration.
—Jim Keyser, Idaho Statesman, 19 Feb. 2026
Tarasenko found the net on his team's first shot, scored off a third-period faceoff, then later deked around two defenders to set up a goal by Danila Yurov.
—CBS News, 17 Dec. 2025
With the ball in his arms and plenty of green in front of him, the sophomore sped down the KoMets’ sideline, made a move inside the Pioneer 40 to deke a final tackler and dashed across the other goal line.
—Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 7 Nov. 2025
Nichushkin deked to the left of Lyon, but held onto the puck before slipping it to a cutting Makar for a tap-in at 4:32 of the second.
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 13 Oct. 2025
The forward deked past the goaltender, backhanded the puck into the net and then slid into the boards.
—Peter Baugh, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
Jack Murray, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Rodrigues deked Woll and snuck the puck past him for the Panthers’ third goal of the period.
—Adam Lichtenstein, Sun Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2026
With only Canada goalie Jordan Binnington to beat, Haula deked him and buried the puck in the net.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 20 Feb. 2026
In overtime, which is played 3-on-3 rather than 5-on-5, Keller took a long pass from Taylor Heise, deked past a Canadian defender and lifted a shot over the pads and under the blocker of goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens for the game-winner, setting off a wild celebration.
—Jim Keyser, Idaho Statesman, 19 Feb. 2026
Tarasenko found the net on his team's first shot, scored off a third-period faceoff, then later deked around two defenders to set up a goal by Danila Yurov.
—CBS News, 17 Dec. 2025
With the ball in his arms and plenty of green in front of him, the sophomore sped down the KoMets’ sideline, made a move inside the Pioneer 40 to deke a final tackler and dashed across the other goal line.
—Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 7 Nov. 2025
Nichushkin deked to the left of Lyon, but held onto the puck before slipping it to a cutting Makar for a tap-in at 4:32 of the second.
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 13 Oct. 2025
The forward deked past the goaltender, backhanded the puck into the net and then slid into the boards.
—Peter Baugh, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deke
Verb
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Deputies tried to pull the driver over, but the driver instead chose to flee, and during the chase, the driver allegedly turned his headlights off to try and evade deputies, the sheriff's office said.—
Jose Fabian,
CBS News,
8 Mar. 2026
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About half of China’s oil imports must traverse the strait, and 90% of Iran’s oil supply ends up in China, often via third countries to evade sanctions.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
7 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Maas answered some, dodged others, and dropped a few hints that will fuel months of new speculation.—
Hanna Wickes,
Miami Herald,
5 Mar. 2026
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She was also slammed over how her department is spending the billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress and accused of dodging accountability.—
Rebecca Santana,
Chicago Tribune,
4 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Deke.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deke. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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