dupe
1 Americannoun
-
a person who is easily deceived or fooled; gull.
-
a person who unquestioningly or unwittingly serves a cause or another person.
a dupe of the opponents.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
noun
-
a person who is easily deceived
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a person who unwittingly serves as the tool of another person or power
verb
Other Word Forms
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!)
Vocabulary lists containing dupe
Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Warm-up, List 1
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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:
Perfetti: On our best day, we’re trying to dupe people into believing that it’s real life.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
And Ms. Millonzi wisely avoids turning Roderigo into an overly whiny and dim dupe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
It took a hit this week after former executives accused it of manipulating markets to dupe consumers into buying its products.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2025
More than a quarter of UK shoppers say they've bought a skincare or makeup dupe.
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2025
I was disgusted with myself for having let her dupe me.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
In 2024, the British government released a video of a phone call in which the then foreign minister David Cameron was duped by someone posing as former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
In one Reddit thread about the jury-duty scam, a number of people describe being duped.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
In Thailand, lawmakers are hearing a complaint by 126 fans who were duped by an offer to help them "wait in line" for tickets.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
But the victim, realizing he’d been duped, had reached out to police.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Once my parents realize they’ve been duped, there will no doubt be an all-out search.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
Scammers have become increasingly adept at duping customers into sending payments through elaborate social engineering schemes, including by developing romantic connections to their victims.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Last month, the foreign minister told the BBC the Kenyan authorities had closed more than 600 recruitment agencies suspected of duping Kenyans with promises of jobs overseas.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 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
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
The entire food chain of intermediaries in the subprime mortgage market was duping itself with the same trick, using the foreshortened, statistically meaningless past to predict the future.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
