as in fooling
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as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue
Tom Sawyer famously hoodwinked the other boys into thinking there was nothing more enjoyable than whitewashing a fence
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of hoodwinking
David Greising,
Chicago Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
Verb
Stadiums are notorious for their lack of multiplier impact, which is one reason these days why sports team owners, such as the McCaskey family that controls the Bears, have such a hard time hoodwinking governments into giving them direct subsidies to build their stadiums.
—
David Greising,
Chicago Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hoodwinking
Noun
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No fooling, April brings some pretty interesting surprises on Netflix.
Verb
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The schemes involve a predator pretending to be a teenager online and tricking victims into sending illicit photos of themselves.
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Such techniques typically work by tricking the user into approving a request to approve a device owned by the attacker instead.
Noun
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Early the next morning, the authorities were at Burdette’s door, this time without a ruse.
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Of course, this could all be a literally and figurative swift ruse on the part of the Miss Americana superstar and her Super Bowl-winning fiancé.
Verb
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The thing is, a lot of people have a talent for deceiving the public.
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Park and weather officials alike emphasize to Grand Canyon visitors that hiking conditions can be deceiving.
Noun
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The Blacks’ defeat would be certain if not for dragons and subterfuge.
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There is a long history of subterfuge at World Cups — a long history of sharing injury information that isn’t exactly transparent or even accurate.
Noun
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So, that's a kind of deception.
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The county argues the grand jury fundamentally misunderstood what happened before the explosion, saying its investigation relied on speculation instead of evidence and wrongly blamed county officials for a criminal enterprise prosecutors say was built on years of deception.
Noun
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Now, though, summer in the south is so brutal that centuries of architectural trickery is being outmatched, and in the north, houses designed to retain heat during the winter have become furnaces in sweltering summers.
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There's no shame, no trickery—just relief and a chance to rebuild your financial stability.
Noun
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Edward Bernays might have urged consultation with a shrink like his uncle, Dr. Freud, to help communicate their conflicting stratagems.
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Photograph by Glen Wilson / Lionsgate Fuqua’s low-key approach is both a natural expression of his personality and a shrewd stratagem to reassure people around him that everything is under control.
Cite this Entry
“Hoodwinking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hoodwinking. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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