as in defeating
to get the better of through cleverness
the prisoners outfoxed the guards by tunneling beneath the prison walls
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for outfoxing
Verb
-
Texas State men's basketball finished the regular season with a bang, defeating App State 60-57 to squeeze its way into a six-way tie for second place in the Sun Belt.—
Caleb Yum,
Austin American Statesman,
2 Mar. 2026 -
Mater Dei celebrated its return to the top of CIF Southern Section boys soccer by defeating rival Orange Lutheran 2-0 in the Open Division final at El Modena High on Saturday.—
Dan Albano,
Oc Register,
1 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Folktales are filled with people fighting to survive in forests, steppes, and deserts, and evading and outwitting the wild beasts that dwell within them.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
-
The characters here, though, are nowhere near so smart as those conniving pagans and can only dream of outwitting the sophisticated folk from the mainland, coming there with their talk of cake, and comfy chairs, and their lies.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
22 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Invite critiques to maintain humility Nicholas likes to tell his team that loyalty in retail is just the absence of something better, and he is driven by a fear of rivals like Costco outsmarting his business.—
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson,
semafor.com,
17 Oct. 2025
-
Because some of them act like complete idiots, but Wendy is constantly outsmarting everyone.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The Strategic Powerhouses These names are inspired by women who lead with their minds, outmaneuvering everyone in the room.—
Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal,
Parents,
19 Feb. 2026
-
Ian Terry won Big Brother season 14 at just 21 years old, becoming the show’s youngest champion after outmaneuvering veteran players with a quiet — but highly calculated — game.—
Samantha Stutsman,
PEOPLE,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
The ceiling thwarting her exceptional talent originated from the constraints of tradition.—
Marcus Thompson II,
New York Times,
4 Feb. 2026
-
Revolution is developing drugs that target a molecular driver of cancers known as RAS and its experimental drugs seek to block the driver, thereby thwarting common cancers including lung, pancreatic, and colon that have proven difficult to treat.—
Ed Silverman,
STAT,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
After the remaining contestants voted out Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski and Eric Nam, Higgins was blindsided to discover her close ally, Rob Rausch, was deceiving her all along.—
Melina Khan,
USA Today,
27 Feb. 2026
-
Neglecting The Kitchen Sink Your sink may look spick-and-span, but looks can be deceiving.—
Melissa Locker,
Southern Living,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
The rehabilitation itself will be expensive, and its success will depend on wooing private investors and overcoming a half-decade of adverse publicity.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
27 Feb. 2026
-
His Ducks rallied to beat two-time defending conference champion Edmonton in their return from the Olympic break, overcoming a pair of two-goal deficits and another one-goal deficit during their frenetic four-goal third period.—
Greg Beacham,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Indeed, depth would only get in the way of the plot, which is primarily concerned with fooling you and fooling you again.—
Television Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 2026
-
Watching Bedard break ankles on a nightly basis like Allen Iverson on skates, attempting one-man rushes most players couldn’t even fathom, fooling elite goaltenders with his patented drag-and-drive release, is exhilarating.—
Mark Lazerus,
New York Times,
3 Feb. 2026
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
“Outfoxing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/outfoxing. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
