decoy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A living or artificial bird or other animal used to entice game into a trap or within shooting range.
2. n. An enclosed place, such as a pond, into which wildfowl are lured for capture.
3. n. A means used to mislead or lead into danger.
4. v. To lure or entrap by or as if by a decoy. See Synonyms at lure.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To lure into a snare; entrap by some allurement or deception: as, to decoy ducks within gunshot; troops may be decoyed into an ambush.
2. To allure, attract, or entice, without notion of entrapping.
3. Synonyms Allure, Lure, Entice(see allure); to snare, insnare, mislead.
4. To be deceived by a decoy; fall into a snare.
5. n. A lure employed to entice game into a snare or within the range of a weapon; specifically, an image of a bird, as a duck, or a trained living bird or animal, used to lure wild birds or animals into the power of man; hence, also, a person similarly employed with respect to other persons.
6. n. Anything intended to lead into a snare; any lure or allurement that deceives and misleads into evil, danger, or the power of an enemy; a stratagem employed to mislead or lead into danger.
7. n. A place, as a pond, furnished with an arrangement for luring wild fowl into it. Several channels or pipes of a curved form, covered with light hooped network, lead from the pond in various directions. The wild fowl are enticed to enter the wide mouth of the channel by tamed ducks trained for the purpose, or by grain scattered on the water. When they are well within the covered channel they are driven up into the funnel-net at the far end, where they are easily caught.
8. n. A pond used to snare and entrap, and also to maintain and breed, waterfowl.

Wiktionary

1. n. A person or object meant to lure something to danger.
2. n. A real or fake animal used by hunters to lure game.
3. v. To act or use a decoy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap; to insnare; to allure; to entice
2. n. Anything intended to lead into a snare; a lure that deceives and misleads into danger, or into the power of an enemy; a bait.
3. n. A fowl, or the likeness of one, used by sportsmen to entice other fowl into a net or within shot.
4. n. A place into which wild fowl, esp. ducks, are enticed in order to take or shoot them.
5. n. A person employed by officers of justice, or parties exposed to injury, to induce a suspected person to commit an offense under circumstances that will lead to his detection.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot)
2. n. something used to lure fish or other animals into danger so they can be trapped or killed
3. v. lure or entrap with or as if with a decoy