decoy

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'The way these people had used civilians as a decoy is absolutely sickening.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A living or artificial bird or other animal used to entice game into a trap or within shooting range.
  2. noun An enclosed place, such as a pond, into which wildfowl are lured for capture.
  3. noun A means used to mislead or lead into danger.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • But he is a physical speedster who can stretch the field so he has value even as a decoy, and is dangerous with YAC if he does get the ball in his hands. —  MVN
  • 'The way these people had used civilians as a decoy is absolutely sickening. —  Home | Mail Online
  • Nicks added that the Carolina coaching staff has done a good job in recognizing the mismatches that Tate creates and have run plays that can create some confusion by using Tate as a decoy, as was the case with both of Nicks's scoring plays. —  North Carolina Tar Heels News -- www.tarheelblue.com
  • If you pick out your hiding spot first and then place the decoy, you can pace off the distance from the decoy to your hideout and know that a turkey approaching the decoy is in easy range.
  • He's actually a decoy -- a plain clothes West Valley cop testing drivers to see if they'll stop for pedestrians and Police are pulling over violators. —  ABC 4: Top Stories
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This word has been looked up 133 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Possibly from Dutch de kooi, the cage : de, the (from Middle Dutch; see to- in Indo-European roots) + kooi, cage (from Middle Dutch cōie, from Latin cavea).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from de- + coy, v., entice, allure: see de- and coy, v. The birds decoyed and the decoying birds being commonly ducks, the word decoy, especially as a noun, was soon turned by popular etymology into duckoy. Hence the spelling duckoy, and finally the compound duckcoy, which, though thus developed from decoy, may be considered as made up of duck + coy, n., also used in sense of decoy. The D. words, eenden-kooi, formerly eende-kooi, a ‘duck-coy’ (Dutch eend—Anglo-Saxon ened, a duck: see drake and anas), kooi-eend, a ‘coy-duck,’ kooi-man, a decoyman, vogel-kooi, a bird-cage, a decoy, are compounded with D. kooi, a cage, a bird-cage, a fold, hive (the source of English coy, q. v., but not connected with English coy or decoy), either independently of the accidentally similar English words, or in imitation of them.
  2. from decoy, v.
 

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/dəˈkɔɪ/
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