verb
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to dupe; trick
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obsolete to cover or hide
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hoodwinksimple
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hoodwinkssimple
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have hoodwinkedperfect
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has hoodwinkedperfect
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am hoodwinkingprogressive
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are hoodwinkingprogressive
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is hoodwinkingprogressive
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have been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
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has been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
Past
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hoodwinkedsimple
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had hoodwinkedperfect
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was hoodwinkingprogressive
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were hoodwinkingprogressive
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had been hoodwinkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hoodwink
Explanation
To hoodwink someone means to trick or mislead them. Beware of fake ATMs that try to hoodwink you into giving over your bank card and your code, only to keep them both and steal all your money. An excellent, old-fashioned word is hoodwink, and you’ll be happy you know it when you have to read Victorian novels in which characters are repeatedly hoodwinked. It is an Old English compound which meant "to blindfold" 600 years ago but quickly began to be used figuratively. Think about the expression, to pull the wool over someone's eyes, as having the same image and meaning. Has your big sister ever hoodwinked you into doing her chores for her?
Vocabulary lists containing hoodwink
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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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:
Jones was livid—two weeks could allow the miscreants to hoodwink more applicants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Facts are usually avoided when fiction gives us solace in our mediocrity, or when it gives us camouflage to hoodwink others.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2025
It soon became apparent that my name and image were being used by scammers to try to hoodwink people out of money.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2025
Opponents point to the ability of shorts to hoodwink investors by spreading false rumors before exiting a trade, a technique known as “short and distort.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
“Listen, Max. You think I’m trying to hoodwink you, don’t you?”
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
Alex is so attuned to the “textures and habits” of the elite, so sure she can pull one over on them that she of course hoodwinks herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023
Jackman plays Harold Hill, the con man who hoodwinks the good citizens of River City, Iowa, into believing that he can transform their untrained youngsters into a professional-grade marching band.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2022
He's charismatic and persuasive, and he somehow hoodwinks a class just as impressionable as he.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 3, 2012
Or perhaps Facebook is betting we're too lazy and ignorant to read the fine print, just like wireless carriers who try to dazzle us with their sleight-of-plan hoodwinks.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 6, 2012
A false message carried by an American courier hoodwinks the British.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
As it turns out, I’m hardly the only person to have felt hoodwinked, bamboozled, and/or flat-out deceived by my smartphone’s forecasts in 2026.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Let him know that there’s a chance this is a romance scam/honey trap and that even the smartest people get hoodwinked by nefarious characters who take advantage of their loneliness.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 23, 2026
What about hoodwinked for believing England had a chance of competing in Australia?
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2025
New Yorkers still take pride in not being easily hoodwinked.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2025
“You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen?”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
She said Joshua's "hoodwinking of innocent people" must "come into the light".
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2025
Another example of agent Scott Boras hoodwinking one of their own, they said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2024
What is it about scams and hoodwinking that appeals to us in a visceral way that we want to read these stories, and we want to explore them?
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2023
At one point he sent for me, and I found him on his cellphone with someone on the crew, proposing a plot that, I soon gathered, involved hoodwinking Gilligan.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2022
First, what makes you think that Quinn—this man of certain standing, you know—wasn’t hoodwinking you, in order to get you to do exactly what you are doing?”
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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.
