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
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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:
Before this season, savvy pitchers with expert command and dazzling spin had been able to dupe human umps into calling strikes on balls just off the plate, a time-honored tradition that had existed for generations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 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
People should also watch out for scams, with criminals attempting to dupe taxpayers by purporting to be from HMRC.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
Thanks to rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the cybercriminals seeking to dupe you into handing over your retirement funds or revealing company secrets are getting smarter and stronger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
“That is the most unforgiving speech,” said Elizabeth, “that I ever heard you utter. Good girl! It would vex me, indeed, to see you again the dupe of Miss Bingley’s pretended regard.”
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
Analyst Michaels says no international stakeholders have been "duped" by Myanmar's electoral process.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Zendaya had her fun with the AI pics and told the host that even her own loved ones had been duped by the fabricated photos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
Many victims say they were duped by scammers who had professional-looking photos, wore immigration uniforms and staged realistic virtual hearings.
From Salon ● May 2, 2026
Passkeys aren’t duped by a well-designed fake login page.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
The next day the dockers and press got word that they had been duped.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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
Speaking to the BBC last week, Kenya's Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said Nairobi had shut down more than 600 recruitment agencies suspected of duping Kenyans with promises of jobs overseas.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 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
Prosecutors accused him of duping investors after he failed to disclose that he was being paid by tech startup Servergy to recruit them.
From Slate ● Mar. 27, 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.
