finagled

past tense of finagle

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 finagled Even top-of-the-food-chain schools like Michigan, UCLA and Washington have recently finagled their balance sheets to cover athletic deficits. Stewart Mandel, New York Times, 15 July 2026 In Europe with friends, Reed finagled his way into the Venice Film Festival in 1965 and interviewed Buster Keaton and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Duane Byrge, HollywoodReporter, 12 May 2026 On Sunday, August 10, the JoBros kicked off their Jonas20 tour in New Jersey, with Nick telling the audience that after Joe landed a lead role in the Disney Channel Original Movie, their dad finagled a way for Kevin and Nick to get parts as well. Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 11 Aug. 2025 This whole thing seems staged, planned, finagled, massaged, bamboozled, lollygagged, and all sorts of other long, silly-sounding words that may not necessarily apply to this situation. Brian Moylan, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for finagled
Verb
  • Know More The Pentagon has negotiated equity or some equivalent, like warrants, in at least 10 companies since Cerberus cofounder Steve Feinberg was confirmed as deputy defense secretary last year.
    Eleanor Mueller, semafor.com, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Individual tribes negotiated with the United States with little success.
    Sandra Slater, The Conversation, 21 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • The producers’ suit appeared to sputter out in 2022, when a judge ruled that they were not cheated out of profits and that AMC had sued a standard definition.
    Gene Maddaus, Variety, 8 Sep. 2026
  • The Times has interviewed more than a dozen clients and investors who said they were cheated by Holdo.
    Alene Tchekmedyian, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • In 1939, she was banned from performing in Washington’s Constitution Hall because of her race, and her manager, with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, arranged a performance in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday.
    Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Lehrer arranged a meeting to sell him the files—then never showed up.
    Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • While companies can license those characters for interactive experiences — one hypothetical Thomson offered was a Waymo with the voice of Prime — those can’t be manipulated in the way many unauthorized clips of Hasbro characters have been.
    Corbin Bolies, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026
  • One potential reason floated to Semafor by market participants is that compute futures could be manipulated to show a sharp drop in the cost of older chips, which might destabilize AI stocks and debt markets.
    Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • The company says the system is being engineered for manufacturability and scalable deployment.
    Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 21 Sep. 2026
  • This episode of The Permanent Questions was produced by Rebecca Davis, edited by Christopher Beha, and engineered by Rob Smierciak.
    David Brooks, The Atlantic, 20 Sep. 2026

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Finagled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagled. Accessed 24 Sep. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster