as in fooling
Related Words
Relevance
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
-
Growing tulips indoors in pots uses a technique called forcing—tricking the bulb and plant into blooming.—
Andy Wilcox,
Better Homes & Gardens,
29 Oct. 2025 -
How to protect yourself from AI phishing scams AI phishing scams rely on tricking people into trusting what looks and sounds real.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
14 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The New York Colored American reported that some offers of short-term work for Black men — moving livestock to or from Kentucky, for example — were ruses that ended with kidnappings.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Odysseus, the Ithacan warrior who is as celebrated for craftiness as Achilles is for brute strength, devises a clever ruse in which the Greeks place a giant wooden horse outside Troy’s walls and pretend to sail away.—
Elizabeth D. Samet,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Anyone who predicted this Titans team to win more than four or five games was fooling themselves, and even those predictions are coming off over-optimistic.—
Nick Suss,
Nashville Tennessean,
3 Nov. 2025
-
Either Michigan is fooling everyone in college football, or the Wolverines are fooling themselves.—
Austin Meek,
New York Times,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The story then unfolded through the subterfuge of the princess and the care of Morton.—
Simon Perry,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Unlike the confrontational drudgery of couples therapy — and aiming to avoid the confrontational finality of divorce — this approach relies on subterfuge.—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
As Venus enters Scorpio, your love life appears quiet, but appearances can be deceiving!—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Gordon warned me that this was deceiving.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Don’t get too comfortable because the toxicity, lies and deception are about to return.—
Carly Thomas,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Nov. 2025
-
The 5-foot-11, 154-pound Imai throws a mix of six pitches, but is more than simply a deception specialist.—
Jon Vankin,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Watching the song’s polarizing music video, which uses digital trickery to reunite the surviving Beatles with their late mates, projected behind McCartney and his band on a massive screen is trippy, and hard for the brain to comprehend.—
Joseph Hudak,
Rolling Stone,
7 Nov. 2025
-
But there’s no trickery in those matches — the big ones are pay-per-view promoted events.—
Jeremy Herb,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Night after night the stratagem was repeated successfully.—
Robert Easton,
Outdoor Life,
3 Sep. 2025
-
For people like Soriano, however, the elections are about more than political stratagem and determining which family holds the most nominal power.—
Chad de Guzman,
Time,
13 May 2025
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.
Cite this Entry
“Hoodwinking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hoodwinking. Accessed 18 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share