finagle
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person) (often followed byout of ).
He finagled the backers out of a fortune.
-
to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation.
to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
(tr) to get or achieve by trickery, craftiness, or persuasion; wangle
-
to use trickery or craftiness on (a person)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of finagle
An Americanism first recorded in 1925–30; finaig- (variant of fainaigue ) + -le
Explanation
When you finagle, you get out of something using devious methods, like when you pretend you're sick to avoid taking a pop quiz. Finagle is a word with a usually negative connotation, as it means to get something by being dishonest or tricking someone. To get a student discount from a bookstore by pretending you're a student is to finagle the store clerk. Finagle might also mean to get your way by being clever, as when you convince your sister that what she really wants for her birthday is that video game you've been dreaming of for months.
Vocabulary lists containing finagle
100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Grown
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Americanized
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Financial firms are under attack by hackers using voice phishing to finagle sensitive data from employees, according to new research from Google’s threat-intelligence group.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Francisco-Juan claimed to be the 10-year-old’s father and had managed to finagle her mother into putting his name on her birth certificate, manufacturing bogus proof of the relationship.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 21, 2022
Premium cabins typically aren’t cheap if you’re paying a cash fare, but you might be able to finagle your way to an upgrade.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2022
If she used some of his vast fortune to fund her music career and finagle a starring role on Broadway, so what?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2021
They spent what remained of their honeymoon on deck, learning how to finagle their way through Ellis Island.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
I don’t know how these guys finagled that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
He finagled it so that he ran the leg that passed right in front of his and my friend’s house on Monroe Drive.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2024
Los Angeles’ city officials and civic moguls finagled and schemed more than 110 years ago to bring its waters to Los Angeles — essentially sticking a 200-something-mile-long straw in the lake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2023
He picked up gigs in the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village, finagled a room at the Metropole Hotel in Times Square and met Mr. Rich and Mr. Krupa, who both took him under their wing.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2022
“Then I found out. Mother finagled the governor to appoint me to the Council of Defense. The draft board said that could be my service.”
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Hummel is one of the few who relish diagnosing their problems, taking them apart and finagling them in and out of trucks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
While the film takes a clever yet light bit of finagling to find online, it’s worth the search: “A Diva’s Christmas Carol” is a life-altering, life-affirming event movie to rival even the best Dickens alteration.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
But she has an ulterior motive in shrewdly finagling her way into a job at an esteemed Chicago law firm, which is revealed by the end of the hour and sets the season in motion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
It took some finagling to get on the lists—the spots were reserved for clients, customers, and dealers willing to fork over their contact info and sit through a sales pitch—but I had a dealer’s credential.
From Slate ● May 30, 2023
After finagling ourselves out of a visit to the principal’s office, we limped home.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
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.
