manipulate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to manage or influence skillfully, especially in an unfair manner.
to manipulate people's feelings.
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to handle, manage, or use, especially with skill, in some process of treatment or performance.
to manipulate a large tractor.
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to adapt or change (accounts, figures, etc.) to suit one's purpose or advantage.
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Medicine/Medical. to examine or treat by skillful use of the hands, as in palpation, reduction of dislocations, or changing the position of a fetus.
verb
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(tr) to handle or use, esp with some skill, in a process or action
to manipulate a pair of scissors
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to negotiate, control, or influence (something or someone) cleverly, skilfully, or deviously
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to falsify (a bill, accounts, etc) for one's own advantage
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(in physiotherapy) to examine or treat manually, as in loosening a joint
Other Word Forms
- manipulability noun
- manipulatable adjective
- manipulation noun
- manipulative adjective
- manipulatively adverb
- manipulator noun
- manipulatory adjective
- nonmanipulative adjective
- nonmanipulatory adjective
- outmanipulate verb (used with object)
- unmanipulatable adjective
- unmanipulated adjective
- unmanipulative adjective
- unmanipulatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of manipulate
First recorded in 1820–30; back formation from manipulation
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.
While LLMs can predict the next word in a sequence, they don’t possess an understanding of physics, and they can’t visualize and manipulate objects and spaces in three dimensions.
From MarketWatch
While LLMs can predict the next word in a sequence, they don’t possess an understanding of physics, and they can’t visualize and manipulate objects and spaces in three dimensions.
From MarketWatch
Armed with little more than a few leading questions, researchers have found that most humans can be easily manipulated into believing that they did or saw something they didn’t.
From Los Angeles Times
These vibrations allow the chip to manipulate laser light with remarkable precision.
From Science Daily
Suh was also accused of manipulating evidence to support Seoul's controversial claim that the late fisheries official had sought to defect to the North.
From Barron's
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.
