Primary
''inveigle'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250726113514-00-⌔
inveigle - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Verb
inveigle (third-person singular simple present inveigles, present participle inveigling, simple past and past participle inveigled)
- (transitive) To convert, convince, or win over with flattery or wiles.
- ✤ Synonyms: entice, induce, put someone up to something
- ✤ And he that could with giftes and promiſes,/Inueigle him that lead a thouſand horſe,/And make him falſe his faith vnto his King,/Will quickly win ſuch as be like himſelfe.1
- ✤ And therefore hereto he inveigleth, not only the Sadduces and ſuch as retaine unto the Church of God, but is alſo content that Epicurus Democritus or any of the heathen ſhould hold the ſame.2
- ✤ But in the mean time […] it looks all ſo like ſubterfuge and inveagling; it is ſo nauſeating and teadious a task, that no man thinks he ovvs the Author ſo much ſervice as to find out the reaſon of his ovvn Categoricalneſs for him.3
- ✤ Say he’s been misguided by the rebels, and how they’ve inveigled him, till he’s turned rebel himself; and how he’s now out with Marion’s men, in Major Singleton’s squad.4
- ✤ She described with the most vivid minuteness the agonies of the country families whom he had ruined—the sons whom he had plunged into dishonour and poverty—the daughters whom he had inveigled into perdition.5
- (transitive) To obtain through guile or cunning.
- ✤ He inveigled an introduction to my sister from me.
- ✤ As Louisa had no desire to receive the attentions of the Prince, and Lady Penrhyn was well-practised in the art of inveigling, she would have soon carried her point, if she had not met with one who disputed the prize almost as adroitly as herself;…6
- (transitive, obsolete) To fool, to delude, to blind in judgement.
- (transitive, obsolete) To ensnare, to entangle.
Etymology
Borrowed from Anglo-Norman enveugler, alteration of aveugler (“to blind, to delude”), from Old French avogle (“without eyes”), from Late Latin ab oculīs (“without eyes”, literally “away from the eyes”). The in- might be by analogy to variation between a- and en- in other French words, which was then latinised into in-.78
For the pronunciation with/iː/, compare the development of people; that with/eɪ/is presumably a spelling pronunciation.
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-06-28.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii: ↩
1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Last and Common Promoter of False Opinions, the Endeavours of Satan”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 42: ↩
1672, [Andrew Marvell], The Rehearsal Transpros’d: Or, Animadversions upon a Late Book, Entituled, A Preface, Shewing what Grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, pages 57–58: ↩
1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XVIII, page 218: ↩
1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC: ↩
1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 246: ↩
Barnhart, Robert and Steinmetz, Sol, editors (1988), “inveigle”, in The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology , Bronxville, N.Y.: The H. W. Wilson Co., →ISBN, →OCLC, page 541, column 2. ↩
Onions, C[harles] T., Friedrichsen, G. W. S., and Burchfield, R[obert] W., editors (1966), “inveigle”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology , Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 483, column 2; reprinted 1994. ↩
Secondary
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