Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To persuade or attempt to persuade by flattery or guile; cajole.
- v. To obtain through the use of flattery or guile: a swindler who wheedled my life savings out of me.
- v. To use flattery or cajolery to achieve one's ends.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To entice, especially by soft words; gain over by coaxing and flattery; cajole; coax; flatter; hence, to hoax; take in.
- To gain or procure by flattery or coaxing.
- To flatter; coax.
- n. One who wheedles; a cajoling or coaxing person.
- n. A piece of cajolery; a flattering or coaxing speech; a hoax.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To entice by soft words; to cajole; to flatter; to coax.
- v. To grain, or get away, by flattery.
- v. To flatter; to coax; to cajole.
WordNet 3.0
- v. influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
Etymologies
- Origin unknown.
Examples
“Ms. LENHART: We heard from teens who said, you know, when I want the yes, I'll go to the phone because my parents can hear my voice and I can kind of wheedle and I can charm them, and that's how I'm going to get what I want.”
“She will connive and she will lie and she will wheedle her way in as far as she can wheedle, further than you can imagine, until — — oh, I don't know — — she has the password to your SL account.”
"We think we've climbed so high, Up all the backs we've condemned..."
“He, who was sheer bladed steel in the imperious flashing of his will, could swashbuckle and bully like any over-seas roisterer, or wheedle as wickedly winningly as the first woman out of Eden or the last woman of that descent.”
“In puzzle mode that initially just means activating them slowly enough not to cause collisions, but later levels demand deeper experimentation with order and timing before you wheedle out a viable solution.”
“A quick phone call to Robert ensured she would be well guarded, and Brystion managed to wheedle our way out of too many questions.”
“He hopes to wheedle enough support from the national and prefecture governments to show progress rebuilding before leading citizens move away.”
The Wall Street Journal: Fateful Choice on a Day of Disaster
“If not, how did Action Canada wheedle their way in to this otherwise good group of charities?”
“Their favorite words are words that can said with a sneer, but they enjoy words that bark, growl, whine, wheedle, and spit with rage too.”
“In both cases, what is going on is a display of pinstriped muscle – an attempt to wheedle, lobby and finally intimidate government from making whatever decisions it feels are necessary in the national rather than sectional interest.”
The Guardian: North Sea oil: Trading blows with Mr Osborne | Editorial
“Religious Hucksters do more than wheedle money out of their flock.”
The Huffington Post: Diane Dimond: False Prophets and Their Profits
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wheedle’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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onomatopoeic
warble, quibble, quirk, drudgery, chortle, snicker, galumph, thwart, schlock, whimsy, garble, miffed and 25 more...
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VVCle
Look at the list for examples
doodle, google, beetle, sheeple, steeple, poodle, noodle, needle, feeble, bamboozle, rootle, creeple and 11 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...
yarb Citation on poising. Jul 23, 2009
bilby
There's a Wheedle
On the Needle
I know just what
You're thinking
But if you look up
Late at night
You'll se
His red nose blinking.
- Steven Cosgrove, 'Wheedle on the Needle'. Jan 21, 2009
yarb There began a creaky, squeaky, whinny-whining of the wheels as the wagon wheedled along.
- William Steig, Farmer Palmer's Wagon Ride Sep 29, 2008
mariecarnes "There's no surer way to make me want to understand than to tell me I won't. I wheedled him, demanding that he tell me." Little Brother - Cory Doctorow Jul 3, 2008