Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To win over by coaxing, flattery, or artful talk. See Synonyms at lure.
- v. To obtain by cajolery: inveigled a free pass to museum.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lead astray by making blind to the truth or to consequences; mislead by deception; entice into violation of duty, propriety, or self-interest: now usually with into.
- Synonyms To cajole, beguile, lure, insnare, decoy.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To lead astray as if blind; to persuade to something evil by deceptive arts or flattery; to entice; to insnare; to seduce; to wheedle.
WordNet 3.0
- v. influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
Etymologies
- Middle English envegle, alteration of Old French aveugler, to blind, from aveugle, blind, from Vulgar Latin *aboculus : Latin ab-, away from; see ab-1 + Latin oculus, eye (probably loan-translation of Gaulish exsops : exs-, from + ops, eye); see okw- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Again and again, by feint of foot and hand and body he continued to inveigle Sandel into leaping back, ducking, or countering.”
“Several times Wolf Larsen tried to inveigle me into discussion, but”
“Though he's lucky if he pulls even on it, or if he can inveigle a publisher to risk bringing it out.”
“He had led his mother there, step by step, and now when she stopped, he tried to inveigle her farther.”
“By the way, let's check with Hillary whether there's still some way to inveigle Alawi into the top slot.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Brenner: Inside the Oval Office: The Middle East
“It falls to you, therefore, to inveigle a well-heeled person of your acquaintance into scooping you up and whisking you away.”
The Guardian: How do I get… someone to take me on holiday in January
“But it was rough even at the dawn of the new century when the Strokes emerged from the Lower East Side read: Dwight School with their post-punk guitars and biscuit-tin drums to capture a city's insouciant attitude and inveigle the rest of the country with it.”
“Meanwhile, the company dispatched their own PR professionals to the region to deceive and inveigle and obfuscate, all while treating concerned locals to a public face that was a "diversion" by design.”
The Huffington Post: Bob Dudley, BP CEO, Blames Media For Creating "Climate Of Fear" In Gulf
“That Janacek's magnum opus has yet to inveigle itself into the popular imagination is a mystery bordering on injustice.”
The Wall Street Journal: Janacek's Sinfonietta Strikes Deep Chords
“One would think, in the case of Afghanistan, the U.S. would be well aware of its enemy's proficiency at guerrilla warfare, considering the CIA helped to inveigle the Soviets into invading Afghanistan, which President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski saw as an opportunity for "giving the USSR its Vietnam War.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inveigle’.
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1073 more...
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jeffrey.t.whitney's list
sartorial, sabbatarian, sagacious, desiccate, ersatz, insouciant, atavistic, luddite, crwth, obdurate, stentorian, ruminate and 51 more...
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coax
cajole, blandish, inveigle, palaver, croodle, woo, charm, sweet-talk, tweedle, persuade, gentle, jolly and 5 more...
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Your Grandfather's Bad Old World
chicanery, ballyhoo, thaumaturgy, inveigle, wheedle, buncombe, balderdash, twaddle, fustian, lexiphanic, obstreperous, autochthonous and 1 more...
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List Number One
My first list
inveigle, obfuscate, prevaricate, procrastinate, tmesis, diacope
blafferty This word sounds like someone trying to wiggle their way into your pocket. Apr 23, 2011
victoriapl "Mulder, not everything is a labyrinth of dark conspiracy and not everybody is plotting to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate."
X-files episode "Teliko" Dec 2, 2007