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
-
After nearly a full minute of coaxing, the standoff ends.—
Melissa Fleur Afshar,
MSNBC Newsweek,
29 Aug. 2025
-
Multiple people in the room, some yelling, some hitting me, others comforting and coaxing.—
Maer Roshan,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Merlin Revenue Solutions didn’t respond to an email entreaty either.—
Teri Sforza,
Oc Register,
22 Aug. 2025
-
Despite the entreaties from suburban locales to build a stadium outside Colorado’s capital city, most reporting this summer has pointed to evidence that the Broncos are most strongly exploring a site that would keep them in Denver.—
John Aguilar,
Denver Post,
22 Aug. 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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Her voice was loud and hoarse, calling out comments or exhortations concerning the game.—
Rachel Cusk,
New Yorker,
24 Aug. 2025
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But local leaders had no doubt about the perpetrators, even though the state’s campaign had previously been carried out through public exhortations and directives, not clandestine repaintings.—
Ryan Gillespie,
The Orlando Sentinel,
21 Aug. 2025
Noun
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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.—
Stephanie Kuzydym,
The Courier-Journal,
3 Sep. 2025
-
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.—
Ethan Hylton,
IndyStar,
20 Aug. 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 9 Sep. 2025.
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