hoodwink

verb

hood·​wink ˈhu̇d-ˌwiŋk How to pronounce hoodwink (audio)
hoodwinked; hoodwinking; hoodwinks

transitive verb

1
: to deceive by false appearance : dupe
people who allow themselves to be hoodwinked by such promises
2
archaic : blindfold
3
obsolete : hide
hoodwinker noun

Did you know?

We usually use the word wink to refer to a brief shutting of one eye, but hoodwink draws on an older and more obscure meaning of wink covered in our Unabridged Dictionary: “to close one’s eyes.” To hoodwink someone originally was to effectively do that kind of winking for the person; it meant to “cover someone’s eyes,” as with a hood or a blindfold. This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. “The public ... is as easily hood-winked,” wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for decades—and today, that meaning of the word is far from winking out.

Examples of hoodwink in a Sentence

Don't let yourself be hoodwinked into buying things you don't need. Tom Sawyer famously hoodwinked the other boys into thinking there was nothing more enjoyable than whitewashing a fence.
Recent Examples on the Web But the season finale truly opened eyes — and its universe — when scrappy dirtbag Eleanor (Kristen Bell) deduced that the avuncular architect guide had hoodwinked them all and that the Good Place was actually...the Bad Place. Ew Staff, EW.com, 8 Jan. 2024 At least one commenter wondered if Tomlinson had been hoodwinked by the higher-ups at CBS. Eliza Brooke, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024 But my father thought I might be hoodwinked out of my inheritance. Pat Kapowich, The Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2024 Now Rodgers is considered by many to be a kook, someone who let himself get hoodwinked by junk science and conspiracies. USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024 If anyone suspected fraud, he could at worst be criticized for being hoodwinked by the workers, who may never have actually existed. Daniel T. Ksepka, Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2023 The story of a con man who won a freakish election by hoodwinking everyone around him was easier to take than one about complex political dynamics and bad decision-making in the suburbs of Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley. Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2023 And if you once again get hoodwinked, at least you will have been sufficiently warned. Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2023 He’s created a nonprofit, Perfect Our Union, seeking to persuade Trump supporters that they’ve been hoodwinked into devoting themselves to a man who cares not a whit about them. Marc Fisher, Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoodwink.' 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

hood entry 1 + wink

First Known Use

1562, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of hoodwink was in 1562

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Dictionary Entries Near hoodwink

Cite this Entry

“Hoodwink.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoodwink. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hoodwink

verb
hood·​wink ˈhu̇d-ˌwiŋk How to pronounce hoodwink (audio)
: to deceive by false appearance : trick

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