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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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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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Neither the public nor private side began with a champion negotiating binding requirements before contracts were finalized or construction started.—
Ed Gaskin,
Boston Herald,
27 Feb. 2026
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That means protecting benefits already earned while negotiating responsible adjustments for future accruals, exploring constitutional pathways for reform and offering voluntary buyout incentives to reduce long-term liabilities.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Feb. 2026
Verb
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When doing that, they‘ve made it to the World Series once, losing to the cheating Houston Astros.—
Bill Shaikin,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Feb. 2026
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Ilia Malinin was at the center of a cheating scandal where fans accused another figure skater, Gracie Gold, of cheating on her boyfriend, Nam Nguyen.—
StyleCaster Editors,
StyleCaster,
27 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Employees at the company, then known as Facebook, proposed a public audit of design features that might contribute to compulsive use of the platform in the fall of 2018, citing growing public concern that tech companies were intentionally manipulating users, according to the documents.—
CNN,
Mercury News,
24 Feb. 2026
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Employees at the company, then known as Facebook, proposed a public audit of design features that might contribute to compulsive use of the platform in the fall of 2018, citing growing public concern that tech companies were intentionally manipulating users, according to the documents.—
Clare Duffy,
CNN Money,
23 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The victims were women whom the attacker had come to him after arranging a date on an escort application, police said.—
Adam Harrington,
CBS News,
26 Feb. 2026
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Top with butter pieces, arranging evenly over surface.—
Sarah Martens,
Better Homes & Gardens,
25 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Then, in overtime, Team USA’s Megan Keller made an incredible individual play, maneuvering around a defender and then chipping the puck past the goalie.—
The Sports Desk,
NBC news,
20 Feb. 2026
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With growing amounts of space debris in low earth orbit, managing and maneuvering large numbers of satellites would require autonomous collision-avoidance systems, Curlee said.—
Sharon Goldman,
Fortune,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
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These are not engineering questions alone.—
Nathanael Bondu,
Rolling Stone,
19 Feb. 2026
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The challenge is engineering a device that can both recognize diseased tissue and deliver medication quickly and precisely.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
18 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
27 Feb. 2026
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Ready to start plotting your own Athens adventure?—
Stacey Leasca,
Travel + Leisure,
26 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Finagling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagling. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
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