Hornswoggling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Cheating or defrauding someone through cunning deception and clever manipulation
2. Tricking a person into believing something false through artful dishonesty and sleight of hand
3. Bamboozling or hoodwinking someone by means of crafty schemes and deliberate trickery

Etymology: "Hornswoggle" first appears in print in the United States in 1829, and its origin is unknown. Most accounts treat it as a jocular coinage, a playful nonsense word of the same kind as "absquatulate," which Americans were inventing and enjoying in that era. Its most likely parts are "horns" and "waggle," with a humorous twist on the sounds, or a blend with "wobble," though no one has confirmed any of these. A favorite explanation imagines the word arising from the Western cattle trade. A cowboy who roped a steer had to deal with an animal that tossed and twisted its head to escape, and the picture of that struggle, horns swinging and head waggling, may have suggested a word for getting the better of someone through trickery. This is a plausible story rather than a documented one, but it fits the word's rough, rowdy sound and its frontier setting.

Synonyms: deceiving, tricking, defrauding, swindling, bamboozling

Antonyms: truthfulness, honesty, straightforwardness