coax
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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coaxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coaxed,
past participle, past
-
coaxing
present participle
-
to influence or persuade to do something by gentle urging, smooth talk, flattery, etc..
He tried to coax her to sing, but she refused.
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to obtain by coaxing.
We coaxed the secret from him.
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to manipulate to a desired end by adroit handling or persistent effort.
He coaxed the large chair through the door.
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Obsolete.
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to fondle.
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to fool; deceive.
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verb (used without object)
-
coaxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coaxed,
past participle, past
-
coaxing
present participle
noun
verb
-
to seek to manipulate or persuade (someone) by tenderness, flattery, pleading, etc
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(tr) to obtain by persistent coaxing
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(tr) to work on or tend (something) carefully and patiently so as to make it function as one desires
he coaxed the engine into starting
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obsolete (tr) to caress
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obsolete (tr) to deceive
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coaxsimple
-
coaxessimple
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have coaxedperfect
-
has coaxedperfect
-
am coaxingprogressive
-
are coaxingprogressive
-
is coaxingprogressive
-
have been coaxingperfect progressive
-
has been coaxingperfect progressive
Past
-
coaxedsimple
-
had coaxedperfect
-
was coaxingprogressive
-
were coaxingprogressive
-
had been coaxingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of coax1
First recorded in 1580–90; verb use of obsolete cokes “fool,” perhaps variant of coxcomb ( def. )
Origin of coax2
First recorded in 1945–50; by shortening
Explanation
When you coax someone, you try to convince him gently, with pleasant words and maybe a little flattery. You’ll have to be patient, as you can’t rush someone you’re trying to coax. When you coax, you have to be nice about it — you can’t threaten or force. You put on a little charm and gently urge, so that the person or thing is happy about being coaxed. You might coax the runaway elephant back into the zoo by patting her gently and talking into her ear. If you wake up with a terrible bedhead, you might coax your hair back into place with the help of a little hair gel and a comb.
Vocabulary lists containing coax
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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:
And that’s on top of the $13 million annual salary they paid to coax Kiffin away from Mississippi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
From the first hint of cold winter mornings, supermarkets and pharmacies begin heavy marketing to coax us to stock up on vitamin C to get through the cold and flu season.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
Zookeepers will need to coax every bird, reptile, fish and mammal - from the largest rodents in the world to the greenest katydids - to the weighing scale.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
The day was in the low 70s, and a breeze was coming through our kitchen window; I decided I would not mind standing at the stove long enough to coax the squash toward sweet collapse.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Anatole and I took turns rocking his limp little body, talking to him, trying to coax him into the world of the living.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Allegra Goodman’s family saga coaxes, in Sam Sacks’s words, “excellent, bone-dry humor” out of the skirmishes and long-running battles among members of a loving, fractious clan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
That warming coaxes mosquitoes toward higher elevations, even as temperatures have historically been too cold for the insects to thrive.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2024
Aparicio coaxes cultural histories from his rubber casts of trees and meandering flows of poured amber.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2024
It’s not until Pointer coaxes her to take off her artificial leg, leaving her dependent on him, that her internal alarm bells start to go off.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2024
Now that I’m stronger she coaxes me back into our mother-daughter nights.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
He prepared the couple’s morning coffee while Ortiz coaxed him into finishing a smoothie she’d made for him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026
Inside, under flickering lights, a group of reluctant strangers is coaxed into acting out, in a converted gymnasium, a wild tale promising redemption from agonizing tragedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
And the French pianist Michel Petrucciani, who, as a brilliant and precocious teenager in the 1980s, coaxed Mr. Lloyd out of a decade-long hiatus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
As for the suggestion that Stokes' retirement could be temporary, that he could be coaxed back for a last crack at the Aussies next summer, he was having none of it.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
She coaxed her out of bed for baths and meals.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
“Frontier research is actually just about coaxing the models into behaving the way you want them to,” said James Donovan, OpenAI’s former head of cognitive outcomes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
After some coaxing from family, Ramirez realized he was perfectly equipped to create mobile kitchens from scratch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
The woman crouches, coaxing the animal with sweet compliments and a stick of sugarcane she brought with her.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
It was not about coaxing the maximum possible pleasure out of a cut of meat.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2026
She’d found it trembling under a car on 105th Street and spent an hour coaxing it out.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
