coax

1 of 2

verb

coaxed; coaxing; coaxes

transitive verb

1
: to influence or gently urge by caressing or flattering : wheedle
coaxed him into going
2
: to draw, gain, or persuade by means of gentle urging or flattery
unable to coax an answer out of him
coaxing consumers to buy new cars
3
: to manipulate with great perseverance and usually with considerable effort toward a desired state or activity
coax a fire to burn
is optimistic that stem cells can be coaxed into growing into replacement tissue for failing organs
4
obsolete : fondle, pet

coax

2 of 2

noun

co·​ax ˈkō-ˌaks How to pronounce coax (audio)

Did you know?

In days of yore, if you wanted to call someone a sap or a dupe, the word cokes was it, what you wanted, the real thing: to make a cokes of someone was to make a fool of them. This now-obsolete noun is believed to be the source of the verb coax. However, the earliest known sense of the verb, appearing in the late 16th century, was not “to make a fool of” (this meaning came later) but rather something sweeter: “to pet or caress; to treat lovingly.” As such an act of coaxing (or “cokesing”) was sometimes done for personal gain or favor, the word soon came to be used to refer to influencing or persuading people by kind acts or words. By the 19th century, the spelling cokes had fallen out of use, along with the meanings “to make a fool of” and “to treat lovingly.”

Choose the Right Synonym for coax

cajole, coax, soft-soap, blandish, wheedle mean to influence or persuade by pleasing words or actions.

cajole suggests the deliberate use of flattery to persuade in the face of reluctance or reasonable objections.

cajoled him into cheating on the final exam

coax implies gentle and persistent words or actions employed to produce a desired effect.

coaxed the cat out of the tree

soft-soap refers to using smooth and somewhat insincere talk usually for personal gain.

politicians soft-soaping eligible voters

blandish implies a more open desire to win a person over by effusive praise and affectionate actions.

legislators blandished with promises of support

wheedle suggests more strongly than cajole the use of seductive appeal or artful words in persuading.

hucksters wheedling her life's savings out of her

Examples of coax in a Sentence

Verb It took almost an hour to coax the cat down from the tree. She tried to coax a raise from her boss. He was unable to coax an answer out of her. He coaxed the fire to burn by blowing on it. The plant is difficult to coax into bloom.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Lower rates also coax investors to move money from bonds that now have lower returns to higher-yielding stocks. Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024 There is artistry, too, of course, in the act of cooking pasta, coaxing them along a textural spectrum between toothsomeness and pliancy. Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2024 Whether anyone in the NFL can coax better stewardship from Tepper, a giant in the hedge fund industry who bought the franchise for a league-record $2.2 billion in July 2018, may be the biggest question confronting the Panthers. Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Mar. 2024 In Terray’s case, the X factor was access to Nvidia’s researchers and engineers, who know how to coax the most power out of the chip giant’s coveted GPUs, or graphics processing units, used for large-scale AI development. Richard Nieva, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024 Enlow surrendered a pair of hits to Ohtani but allowed only two other base runners over his three innings, even coaxing an empty two-strike swing from Freddie Freeman on a sharp breaking ball for his second strikeout. Evan Webeck, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2024 As drums pounded, the clowns coaxed Raba to the center. Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024 The next step has proved prohibitively challenging: coaxing that sludge of cells to mature into different types—fat, muscle, connective tissue—and arranging them in a structure resembling a solid cut of meat. Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 8 Mar. 2024 Yes, Schiff boosted Garvey by featuring him in millions of dollars’ worth of TV ads, coaxing Republicans to turn out and push the former Major League Baseball star past Porter, a fellow Democrat who would have been a tougher general election opponent. Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
Hilary, smarting from a recent fight with David, coaxes Puri to drink with her, giving her helper a makeover and one of her formal gowns and encouraging her to practice her audition song. Rebecca Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024 And both coax and category 3 UTP can handle the additional bandwidth. Iljitsch Van Beijnum, Ars Technica, 29 June 2023 This means existing household coax installations, which generally make use of only a single cable running to each connected room, won't be of much use. John Herrman, Popular Mechanics, 1 Apr. 2021 Start with your internet modem, the device that most likely has a coax cable connecting it to your wall. Frank Bajak, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2020 The Internet service provider terminated their coax in a small closet off the entry hall. Jim Salter, Ars Technica, 8 Jan. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'coax.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

earlier cokes, from cokes simpleton

First Known Use

Verb

1581, in the meaning defined at sense 4

Noun

1945, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of coax was in 1581

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Dictionary Entries Near coax

Cite this Entry

“Coax.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coax. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

coax

verb
ˈkōks
1
: to influence by gentle urging, special attention, or flattering
2
: to get or win by means of gentle urging or flattery
coaxed a raise from the boss

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