as in cajoling
to get (someone) to do something by gentle urging, special attention, or flattery
wheedled him into doing their work for them
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Recent Examples of wheedling
Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
Verb
Checkers can see your shortcuts, your reportorial wheedling, your blind spots.
—Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wheedling
Verb
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Kershaw also made an impact with his bat, coaxing 13 pitches out of Bumgarner in the top of the fifth before grounding out.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
20 Sep. 2025
-
Faucher also allowed a one-out single to Josh Jung and a walk to Michael Helman before coaxing a flyout by Joc Pederson to end the game and record his 15th save of the season.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
20 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But the Pennsylvania senator has steadfastly declined entreaties to leave the Democratic Party.—
Alexander Bolton,
The Hill,
29 Sep. 2025
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That was followed by another entreaty in April, this time by just the Republican half of the state’s congressional delegation.—
John Aguilar,
Denver Post,
14 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But Putin cannot have needed much persuading to agree to a formal invitation to the US to have the bilateral meeting his team have long held out as the way towards peace in Ukraine.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
9 Aug. 2025
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In the framework of conversational intelligence, most workplace communication falls into Level 1 (telling) or Level 2 (persuading).—
Susan Curtin,
Forbes.com,
5 Aug. 2025
Noun
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However, the pavilion’s visitors rarely complied with this on-screen exhortation, leaving the nearby microphones unused.—
Joanna Warsza,
Artforum,
1 Oct. 2025
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Indeed, there were few exhortations from the roster of speakers at Kirk’s memorial to reduce the temperature in American politics or show more tolerance for all sides, right, left and center.—
David M. Drucker,
Twin Cities,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But while many Hollywood productions have gone overseas in search of lucrative inducements, there are still plenty of creative — and non-economic — reasons a film would shoot outside the United States.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
29 Sep. 2025
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The material contained on this site is intended to inform, entertain and educate the reader and in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or illegally or any sort of professional advice.—
Jacob Camenker,
USA Today,
28 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Impressed by the senator’s blandishments, the egoistic journalist argues military strategy and then faces a moment of conscience.—
Armond White,
National Review,
17 May 2023
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People want to hear blandishments about engagement and infrastructure.—
Rory Smith,
New York Times,
14 Apr. 2023
Noun
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In this newest cover-up, Clooney repeats his film’s original failing — its nostalgic salute to the power of electronic media suasion.—
Armond White,
National Review,
30 Apr. 2025
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Finally, the original Concert vision embraced formal deliberation and moral suasion as the key mechanism of collaborative foreign policy.—
Stacie E. Goddard,
Foreign Affairs,
22 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wheedling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wheedling. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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