Hornswoggles

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cheat, trick, or bamboozle someone through cunning deception
2. To confuse or hoodwink someone by means of a false story or misleading scheme
3. To dupe or swindle someone through trickery and deliberate misdirection

Etymology: "Hornswoggles" is the third-person singular present form of "hornswoggle," meaning to deceive or cheat someone, and that verb is an American coinage from 1829. Its origin is unknown. The most popular guess is that it is a jocular blend of "horns" and "waggle," possibly with a playful imitation of "wobble," and some have imagined it describing a lassoed steer twisting its head to escape the rope. The word is one of a group of cheerfully nonsensical American verbs of the same period, such as "absquatulate," which were built for the pleasure of their sound rather than from any traceable older word. Its later relative "woggle" dates from 1923, so the "waggle" element may have been a sound that English speakers already associated with bobbing or swaying motion.

Synonyms: deceives, tricks, bamboozles, hoodwinks