1
as in negotiating
to plan out usually with subtle skill or care
let me look at my schedule and see if I can't finagle a visit to the museum
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cheating
to use dishonest methods to achieve a goal
she'll finagle until she gets exactly what she wants
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Recent Examples of finagling
Other songs are less terminally online and more reminiscent of finagling fake IDs and getting blitzed on the LES.
—
Lydia Wei, Pitchfork, 20 Feb. 2026
Lydia Wei, Pitchfork, 20 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for finagling
Verb
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Iran’s negotiating team, chaired by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi, met late Friday with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
11 Apr. 2026
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The administration has already spent at least $40 million to deport roughly 300 migrants through such deals and is negotiating with 47 countries to expand the program further.—
Gerald Imray,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Most people would agree that cheating and planning a school shooting are hardly equal offenses, and Borgli doesn't totally stick the landing by sweeping Emma's past impulses under the rug.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
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In the past, Bravo has resumed filming when controversies including its shows have arisen, most notably with the Vanderpump Rules season 10 cheating scandal called Scandoval.—
McKinley Franklin,
HollywoodReporter,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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There was the patriarch, Abbas Khan, prowling through the pages, making real-estate deals, manipulating people.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Apr. 2026
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Full-palm tactile sensing allows the robot to continue manipulating objects even when cameras are obstructed or when precise force control is required, such as in assembly tasks.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
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But many booth owners take great care on their displays and spend their free time arranging their wares just so.—
Josh Miller,
Southern Living,
6 Apr. 2026
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Long before Manhattan's iconic street grid took shape, an English widow laid the groundwork for a settlement in Brooklyn, arranging a small village in what would become the United States into one of the first grid patterns.—
Hannah Kliger,
CBS News,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
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When reentry occurs, Orion's service module responsible for propelling and maneuvering the vehicle through space will separate and burn up, exposing the crew module's heat shield that protects the astronauts from the 3,000-degree Fahrenheit conditions the vehicle will endure.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
10 Apr. 2026
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The glide phase allows maneuvering within the atmosphere.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Apr. 2026
Verb
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There are also engineering challenges.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
11 Apr. 2026
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What was more of a challenge than engineering the chip itself was figuring out the details of actually making the chip project images and videos.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Orbán also leaves behind a fiscal mess, which the analyst Dalibor Rohac suggests Orbán might be happy to abandon while plotting his comeback.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
13 Apr. 2026
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Writing the book was a delight, from research to character development to plotting to drafting.—
Lee Kelly,
PEOPLE,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Finagling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagling. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026.
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