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
At times, Acuña dekes fielders at second by slowing down and then bursting to third, stretching a double into a triple.
—
Jesús Cano, New York Times, 1 June 2026
Kiki Rice dribbled to the hoop, deked and then put up a shot over the Toronto Tempo practice squad, crisp ombre blue-and-burgundy nails releasing the ball into the basket.
—Marisa Ingemi, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2026
Hutson deked around a stick-less Jordan Greenway and dropped a pass to Caufield, who scored into the gaping net as the crowd erupted.
—ABC News, 10 May 2026
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
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
Jesús Cano, New York Times, 1 June 2026
Kiki Rice dribbled to the hoop, deked and then put up a shot over the Toronto Tempo practice squad, crisp ombre blue-and-burgundy nails releasing the ball into the basket.
—Marisa Ingemi, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2026
Hutson deked around a stick-less Jordan Greenway and dropped a pass to Caufield, who scored into the gaping net as the crowd erupted.
—ABC News, 10 May 2026
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deke
Verb
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Emmett holds the two men at gunpoint and instructs them to transport him to a specific location to evade capture.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
6 June 2026
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Johnson evaded questions Friday afternoon from reporters who tried to talk to him about the Bears situation at an event at the Chicago Cultural Center honoring the city’s Puerto Rican community.—
Robert McCoppin,
Chicago Tribune,
5 June 2026
Verb
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By making the obvious choice of waiting until a new app is as good or better than the current app before killing the app’s predecessor, AcuRite may have dodged a bullet.—
Scharon Harding,
ArsTechnica,
11 June 2026
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Skenes, on the other hand, was dodging danger throughout his six innings.—
Bill Plunkett,
Oc Register,
10 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Deke.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deke. Accessed 13 Jun. 2026.
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