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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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
The prosecution has said Wirecard's management invented vast sums of phantom revenue to hoodwink investors and creditors.
From Reuters ● Dec. 6, 2022
"We are not going to hoodwink the people. We are going to be frank and present a plan to get rid of Sri Lanka's economic ills," Mr Premadasa said.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2022
“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
The suit claims Banks was prepared for a fair comeuppance, but ultimately the former supermodel felt hoodwinked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
Even though I could afford it and I needed the operation done, it was hard not to feel a little hoodwinked.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 10, 2025
"Although I did get an email from somebody saying, 'Where's Orca? That's been on repeat.' So people have been hoodwinked by it."
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
“I don’t want you hoodwinked even if you don’t care.”
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
Another example of agent Scott Boras hoodwinking one of their own, they said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2024
It is digital trickery, hoodwinking the brain into seeing something that isn't really there.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023
Any con man keeps a special place in his black-hole heart for people who cannot, or will not, see how he is hoodwinking them.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2022
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
