beguile
Americanverb (used with object)
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beguiles,
present (3rd person singular)
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beguiled,
past participle, past
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beguiling
present participle
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to influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; mislead; delude.
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to take away from by cheating or deceiving (usually followed byof ).
to be beguiled of money.
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to charm or divert.
a multitude of attractions to beguile the tourist.
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to pass (time) pleasantly.
beguiling the long afternoon with a good book.
verb
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to charm; fascinate
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to delude; influence by slyness
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to deprive (someone) of something by trickery; cheat (someone) of
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to pass pleasantly; while away
Usage
What does beguile mean? Beguile means to mislead through trickery or flattery, or to deceive someone in order to swindle them out of something. Beguile can also mean to charm in a good way—you can be beguiled by an interesting person or a book that really captures your imagination, for example. Someone or something that’s charming in such a way can be described as beguiling. All senses of the word can imply a sense of magic or enchantment. There are several similar verbs that often have magical feel, such as charm, enchant, bewitch, enrapture, and enthrall. Example: He beguiled his victims with a charm that left them unable to see the deception that was taking place.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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beguilesimple
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beguilessimple
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have beguiledperfect
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has beguiledperfect
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am beguilingprogressive
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are beguilingprogressive
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is beguilingprogressive
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have been beguilingperfect progressive
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has been beguilingperfect progressive
Past
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beguiledsimple
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had beguiledperfect
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was beguilingprogressive
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were beguilingprogressive
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had been beguilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of beguile
First recorded in 1175–1225, beguile is from the Middle English word bigilen. See be-, guile
Explanation
To beguile is to entertain and convince by flattery. Someone who beguiles is tricky and often charming, like when a smooth-talking friend tries to beguile you into giving them your allowance. The word beguile is from Middle English, and while guile involves deceit, to beguile means to spend time pleasantly, even if it involves trickery. If someone beguiles you for an afternoon, you were amused, entertained, or otherwise pleased. The word can also have a darker tone, as when the person who beguiled you for the afternoon was actually trying to steal your car. Con artists and cat videos tend to beguile people.
Vocabulary lists containing beguile
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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:
Edward Brooke-Hitching supplies all sorts of tidbits to beguile readers ages 7-9 in this entertaining compendium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
You have to do so in such a way that allows the audience to come in to you, to beguile them, to charm them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2025
In the years since, the pinwheels have continued to fascinate, beguile and confound us.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023
English Heritage is not alone in its efforts to beguile visitors with historical treats.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2023
“Do you think you can beguile this conclave with your baubles and vanity? We are not so base as to be dazzled by shiny things.”
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
We witness McFadin as he smilingly interrogates—and intimidates—witnesses and plaintiffs, beguiles juries and sweet-talks judges, knocking down charges against Kenrex as if bowling strike after strike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
You need a thing that beguiles its way into people’s lives and then beguiles them into becoming programmers.
From The Verge ● Mar. 8, 2022
Here, Cooke, a Manchester native, convincingly turns Irish as the spirited young woman who beguiles most everyone but always seems to have a hidden agenda.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2021
This movie — the story of how she returns home — beguiles and fascinates on several levels.
From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2020
As for you yellin' like a pig onder a gate, who is it, I asks, that beguiles this indigent artist party into camp, an' leaves him on our hands?
From Faro Nell and Her Friends Wolfville Stories by W. Herbert Dunton
Yet this strangely compelling work has simultaneously beguiled and baffled art historians for generations, starting with the odd moment that Pontormo chose to depict in his innovative way, isolated from the rest of the narrative.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Lang beguiled with common chords that no longer sounded common, with standard rhythms that intertwined, went on and off the beat, creating arrhythmia delight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
In the 18th century, the 13th duchess beguiled the painter Goya, who portrayed her several times.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
It didn’t take long before the collecting passion had seized hold in earnest and I found myself beguiled by the decorative arts of yesteryear.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2023
R. T. Jones, the engineer who had intervened on behalf of the black man with the Hampton police, had beguiled Langley managers immediately with his facile mind.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
“Cast Away” is a masterwork of creative fiction, employing historical scholarship, biblical allusions and Jungian psychology to deliver one of the most beguiling survival stories ever written.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
But his highly anticipated return to the sci-fi summer blockbuster, the brilliant and beguiling “Disclosure Day,” is Spielberg’s most shameless appeal toward idealism yet.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
He meets his slightly older schoolmate Olympia, one of Eggers’ most beguiling creations, when she implores him to scrawl scatological bathroom graffiti on a playground structure in Old-English typography.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
As we follow him, what seemed like a close look at a regional folk dance soon reveals itself as a magical realist journey that’s both beguiling and amusing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
And that was the ultimate source of its beguiling charm.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
