dupe

¹ American  

[doop, dyoop] / dup, djup /

noun

1. a person who is easily deceived or fooled; gull.

2. a person who unquestioningly or unwittingly serves a cause or another person.

   a dupe of the opponents.

---

verb (used with object)

duped, duping

1. to make a dupe of; deceive; delude; trick.

dupe ² American  

[doop, dyoop] / dup, djup /

noun

1. duplicate.

2. Movies.

   1. a duplicate picture negative used for making additional release prints or for making special effects to be inserted in the release negative.

   2. the procedure for producing such a duplicate.

3. Television. a duplicate videotape obtained by electronic printing of the original videotape.

---

verb (used with or without object)

duped, duping

1. to duplicate.

adjective

1. duplicate.

dupe British  

/ djuːp /

noun

1. a person who is easily deceived

2. a person who unwittingly serves as the tool of another person or power

---

verb

1. (tr) to deceive, esp by trickery; make a dupe or tool of; cheat; fool

Other Word Forms

• dupability
  noun
• duper
  noun
• dupery
  noun
• dupable
  adjective
• undupable
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of dupe¹

First recorded in 1675–85; from French; Middle French duppe for unattested tête d'uppe “head of hoopoe,” i.e., “fool” (compare tête de fou ), from unattested Vulgar Latin uppa, Latin upupa “hoopoe,” a bird thought to be especially stupid; cf. hoopoe

Origin of dupe²

First recorded in 1895–90; by shortening

---

Explanation

A dupe is a furry, ceremonial hat worn during ancient pagan rituals...or not. Dupe actually means “trick or deceive.” We’re sorry we tried to dupe you into believing the wrong definition. Dupe can also refer to the victim of a trick or hoax, and — used in this sense — it sometimes conveys the idea that the victim is easily fooled. Dupe comes from the French word for a type of bird called the hoopoe, which has an extravagant crest and a reputation for being dim-witted. (And no, that's not another attempt to dupe you; it's the truth!)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dupe duped duping

The latest example of this creative approach is “Buddy,” in theaters Friday, which takes the aesthetics of a ’90s kids show like “Barney” or “Blue’s Clues” to carve out a monstrous dupe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

And Ms. Millonzi wisely avoids turning Roderigo into an overly whiny and dim dupe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

Now Zahid Hasan Akhand, who introduced himself as a barrister, was talking him through the different options and how to dupe the Home Office.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

Large language models are used to write convincing emails to dupe people out of their money, causing an eight-fold increase in complaints from older Americans as they lost $4.9 billion in online fraud in 2025.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2026

The knight thought he could dupe the sailor.

From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys

Marcello Hernández’s Rubio initially delivered his appeal in Spanish, only to abandon the pitch and admit that he, too, had been duped.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

But even if there’s no hard camera footage of Kao giving Collins burlap sacks full of cash, there is undoubtedly a story that she got duped into delivering federal dollars to a scammer.

From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2026

The victims were duped into thinking that a model agency was interested in them, with emails telling them they had potential after they responded to a local photographic studio and social media advertising campaign.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Monk had been duped, according to charges later laid out in arrest warrants secured by the local sheriff’s department.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Bobby was on his feet in seconds, recognizing that he’d been duped.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Though there have been stories about kids cutting through the pouches or duping administrators by putting in decoy phones, those troublemakers amount to only a small percentage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The agency, which protects consumers from unfair business practices, accused Amazon of duping people into automatically renewing their Amazon Prime subscriptions through “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2025

Somehow, boxing has a knack of duping the public.

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2024

Alongside developing a relationship with fans and duping them into thinking Fegan was real Tegan, Fegan crossed other boundaries with Tegan's personhood.

From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2024

She told me she couldn’t stand the thought of Marcus duping more people into following him, and I didn’t argue with her.

From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• baffle
• bamboozle
• betray
• cheat
• deceive
• defraud
• delude
• hoodwink
• mislead
• swindle
• victimize

---