hornswoggle
/'hɔ:n,swɔgl/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb: 1. To deceive or cheat someone, especially in a cunning or underhanded way; to swindle. This word means to trick someone out of something, such as money or property, through dishonesty or fraud. It is an informal, somewhat humorous term.
Usage
- Verb (transitive): The word is used with a direct object (the person being deceived). It is often used in the pattern: to hornswoggle someone (out of something).
- Register: Informal, colloquial. It carries a tone of folksy or old-fashioned trickery rather than sophisticated crime.
Examples
- The con artist tried to hornswoggle the elderly couple out of their life savings.
- I think that salesman hornswoggled me; this gadget doesn't work at all!
- He felt he had been hornswoggled into signing a bad contract.
Advanced Usage
- The term often implies the deception was successful and the victim was made to look foolish.
- Example: "The entire town was hornswoggled by the stranger's promises of a miracle cure."
Variants and Related Words
- Hornswoggler (noun): A person who hornswoggles; a swindler or cheat.
- Example: "That charming hornswoggler sold me a map to a non-existent treasure."
Synonyms
- Swindle: To cheat someone out of money or property.
- Defraud: To illegally obtain money from someone by deception.
- Bamboozle: To confuse or fool someone (often less focused on financial loss).
- Hoodwink: To deceive or trick.
- Con: To persuade someone to do or believe something by lying.
Related Phrases & Idioms
- To be hornswoggled: To be in a state of having been cheated or tricked.
- Example: "After checking the facts, she realized she had been thoroughly hornswoggled."
Verb
- deprive of by deceit
- He swindled me out of my inheritance
- She defrauded the customers who trusted her
- the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change