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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hoodwinking
Verb
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Ukraine orchestrated a fake hit on one of Russia's enemies who has fought alongside Ukrainian forces, tricking the Kremlin into paying out a $500,000 bounty Kyiv used to fund its war effort.—
Louis Casiano,
FOXNews.com,
2 Jan. 2026 -
To pull off his human heist, Mendez must develop and try to sell a Star Wars-esque sci-fi film, in the hopes of tricking the Iranians into believing the American hostages are part of a Canadian film crew.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
26 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Over the course of their military demonstration, Roper’s men kill wandering father and son villagers, and Pine kills Corky in a violent fight, setting him up as an inside leak to keep his ruse alive.—
Jake Kring-Schreifels,
Time,
9 Jan. 2026
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Behind the scenes, as reporters tried to substantiate the claims, the ruse continued — still with AI.—
Lauren Wilson,
NBC news,
7 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Early reports indicate that kids are fooling the age-recognition software with sophisticated techniques such as drawing on facial hair and substituting celebrity photos for their own.—
Jay Caspian Kang,
New Yorker,
23 Dec. 2025
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Anyone who thinks that this is an issue that could have been solved by nominating a couple more Spider-Man movies is fooling themselves.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
19 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Smiley, working with his colleague Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) narrows his inquiry to five men, including Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) and Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), using clever subterfuge and maneuvering to get the truth.—
David Faris,
TheWeek,
15 Jan. 2026
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Political pressure and subterfuge to extend American influence, perhaps combined with a bid to buy the island, seem more plausible but are unlikely to work.—
Comfort Ero,
Time,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Relying Too Much On Garbage Disposals Though the name may be deceiving, garbage disposals aren’t actually designed to dispose of all garbage.—
Quincy Bulin,
Southern Living,
3 Jan. 2026
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That level of eye-deceiving detail falters in wide shots, however, some of which suffer from unflattering flat lighting that in certain instances recall computer screensavers of yore, given their colorful artificiality.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
30 Dec. 2025
Noun
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McCoy is charged with theft by deception, violation of oath of office, and three counts of false statements and writings.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
7 Jan. 2026
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Harper got fired for the aforementioned deception.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
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McCaffrey caught another fourth-quarter touchdown pass, on Jauan Jennings’ 29-yard trickery to open the fourth quarter for a brief lead.—
Cam Inman,
Mercury News,
12 Jan. 2026
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Still, American bettors have found an easy work-around in the digital trickery of VPNs, or virtual private networks.—
Will Gottsegen,
The Atlantic,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Some Iraqis view the decision to close polling stations outside their country as a disciplinary stratagem spurred by the diaspora support for the mass protests, known as the Tishreen uprising, which started in October 2019.—
Nabil Salih,
Time,
4 Dec. 2025
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Moreover, Beijing views the constituent elements of a deeper détente, such as arms control negotiations, which Trump pursued in his first term, with suspicion, seeing in them the same stratagems that Washington successfully deployed against the Soviet Union to prevail in the Cold War.—
JONATHAN A. CZIN,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Nov. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Hoodwinking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hoodwinking. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
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