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 Haider staged a fake murder in an apparent effort to hoodwink Abbas and his bosses. Renee Maltezou, Cassell Bryan-Low, Yannis Souliotis and Phil Stewart, USA TODAY, 6 Oct. 2024 Many individuals and companies don’t report after they’ve been hoodwinked. Frank Teruel, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024 No doubt our ancestors found ingenious ways to hoodwink the enemy long before that. Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2024 Loading your audio article State authorities on Friday returned more than $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a Connecticut resident who was hoodwinked earlier this year in a phishing scam. Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 9 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for hoodwink 

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

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near hoodwink

Cite this Entry

“Hoodwink.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoodwink. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

hoodwink

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

More from Merriam-Webster on hoodwink

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!