verb
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to dupe; trick
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obsolete to cover or hide
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hoodwinksimple
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hoodwinkssimple
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have hoodwinkedperfect
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has hoodwinkedperfect
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am hoodwinkingprogressive
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are hoodwinkingprogressive
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is hoodwinkingprogressive
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have been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
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has been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
Past
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hoodwinkedsimple
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had hoodwinkedperfect
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was hoodwinkingprogressive
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were hoodwinkingprogressive
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had been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hoodwink
Explanation
To hoodwink someone means to trick or mislead them. Beware of fake ATMs that try to hoodwink you into giving over your bank card and your code, only to keep them both and steal all your money. An excellent, old-fashioned word is hoodwink, and you’ll be happy you know it when you have to read Victorian novels in which characters are repeatedly hoodwinked. It is an Old English compound which meant "to blindfold" 600 years ago but quickly began to be used figuratively. Think about the expression, to pull the wool over someone's eyes, as having the same image and meaning. Has your big sister ever hoodwinked you into doing her chores for her?
Vocabulary lists containing hoodwink
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr Hogg said Dunlop had the "ability to lie and hoodwink the system", adding: "It's beyond belief."
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2025
The prosecution has said Wirecard's management invented vast sums of phantom revenue to hoodwink investors and creditors.
From Reuters ● Dec. 6, 2022
This accusation of fakery isn’t exclusive to Sandy Hook; Jones’s modus operandi is telling supporters that one horrific event or another was merely a play put on to hoodwink the masses.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2022
The crux of the episode focuses on the Simpson family's travel to Beijing, where they attempt to cheat the adoption process and hoodwink an adoption agent.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2021
Country people we may be, but by golly yokels that you can hoodwink we are jolly well not!'”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Alex is so attuned to the “textures and habits” of the elite, so sure she can pull one over on them that she of course hoodwinks herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023
Jackman plays Harold Hill, the con man who hoodwinks the good citizens of River City, Iowa, into believing that he can transform their untrained youngsters into a professional-grade marching band.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2022
He's charismatic and persuasive, and he somehow hoodwinks a class just as impressionable as he.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 3, 2012
Or perhaps Facebook is betting we're too lazy and ignorant to read the fine print, just like wireless carriers who try to dazzle us with their sleight-of-plan hoodwinks.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 6, 2012
A false message carried by an American courier hoodwinks the British.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
The suit claims Banks was prepared for a fair comeuppance, but ultimately the former supermodel felt hoodwinked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
At least those hoodwinked folks weren’t tricked into leaving their houses for nothing.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2026
Even though I could afford it and I needed the operation done, it was hard not to feel a little hoodwinked.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 10, 2025
At this stage of the season I can get hoodwinked a bit because I have covered some teams when they have played well, and it means I overlook some of their opposition's qualities.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025
“Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!” said Moody.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
It is digital trickery, hoodwinking the brain into seeing something that isn't really there.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023
Their story was that the CHP insisted on the nighttime move for the public’s safety, but on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and in Times letters to the editor, the muttering was about hoodwinking and betrayal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
Any con man keeps a special place in his black-hole heart for people who cannot, or will not, see how he is hoodwinking them.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2022
At one point he sent for me, and I found him on his cellphone with someone on the crew, proposing a plot that, I soon gathered, involved hoodwinking Gilligan.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2022
But Seabiscuit could not be coaxed into showing any speed at all, and to find out if the horse was hoodwinking him, Fitzsimmons opted to make an exception to his nowhip rule.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
