How to Use hoodwink in a Sentence

hoodwink

verb
  • Don't let yourself be hoodwinked into buying things you don't need.
  • Tom Sawyer famously hoodwinked the other boys into thinking there was nothing more enjoyable than whitewashing a fence.
  • The trick is to not get hoodwinked by the illusion of a deal.
    — Josh Miller, Southern Living, 7 June 2026
  • That rowdy group is out to swindle and hoodwink rich guys.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 14 Jan. 2026
  • For decades, we’ve been hoodwinked by the fetishization of coal, to the detriment of us all.
    — Jonathan Thompson, New Republic, 21 Sep. 2017
  • If that was the breakout, then the Dog Pound has been hoodwinked.
    — Ellis L. Williams, cleveland, 5 Dec. 2019
  • When consultants wake up to the fact they’ve been hoodwinked, many don’t warn their friends to stay away.
    — Erin Blakemore, Longreads, 17 Oct. 2017
  • And if you once again get hoodwinked, at least you will have been sufficiently warned.
    — Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2023
  • But my father thought I might be hoodwinked out of my inheritance.
    — Pat Kapowich, The Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2024
  • There’s no argument that somehow people were hoodwinked or didn’t know what was in the contract.
    — Adam Crafton, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Here’s how that would possibly be cleverly staged to hoodwink the baddies.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 12 June 2021
  • Now some people who were hoodwinked and suffered damage to their vision are suing the e-commerce giant.
    — Aaron Pressman, Fortune, 31 Aug. 2017
  • Couples who manage to hoodwink their families stay in the competition, while those who can't sell the lie are out.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 11 Feb. 2022
  • Invited to provide his thoughts on this, Arbeloa stressed he won’t be hoodwinked.
    — Tom Sanderson, Forbes.com, 17 Jan. 2026
  • Haider staged a fake murder in an apparent effort to hoodwink Abbas and his bosses.
    — Renee Maltezou, Cassell Bryan-Low, Yannis Souliotis and Phil Stewart, USA TODAY, 6 Oct. 2024
  • The list of high-profile people Holmes managed to hoodwink is almost as eye-popping as her deceits.
    — Julia Belluz, Vox, 15 June 2018
  • No doubt our ancestors found ingenious ways to hoodwink the enemy long before that.
    — Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Though their tool can’t stop current fake news in its tracks, the team hopes to at least learn more about how the disingenuous content can hoodwink people.
    — Lacy Schley, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2019
  • However, for your sign, money and possessions are where you might be hoodwinked or not realize what’s going on.
    — Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Horror diehards will likely walk away feeling hoodwinked by a freaky trailer that promises something more extreme than what gets delivered.
    — Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 6 Nov. 2024
  • Now Rodgers is considered by many to be a kook, someone who let himself get hoodwinked by junk science and conspiracies.
    — USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Perry even shared a screenshot of a text exchange with her mother, who was also hoodwinked into believing the photo was real.
    — New York Daily News, The Mercury News, 8 May 2024
  • The report depicted the board as hoodwinked by bank executives who withheld important facts.
    — Stacy Cowley and Jennifer A. Kingson, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2017
  • At least one commenter wondered if Tomlinson had been hoodwinked by the higher-ups at CBS.
    — Eliza Brooke, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Was Fox a co-conspirator in the effort to hoodwink the American people?
    — Nicholas Goldberg, Star Tribune, 5 May 2021
  • This part of the busy, teeming picture won’t be for everyone, certainly not for every preteen hoodwinked by the film’s G rating.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 18 June 2019
  • There is a long list of agents who have hoodwinked their own clients—who have stolen, directly or indirectly, or cashed in on side deals, or ignored their own conflicts of interests.
    — Michael Rosenberg, SI.com, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Have we, the audience, been hoodwinked by Pedro Pascal's dadly charms into rooting for a monster?
    — Kyle Orland & Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica, 13 Mar. 2023
  • All that thieves need to do is hoodwink Philadelphia’s Records Department and its gullible and often careless deed room.
    — Craig R. McCoy, Philly.com, 29 June 2018
  • There were also those who despised the film on sight, who felt hoodwinked by the buzz that had built around its seasick camerawork and unwashed stars shouting at each other and dripping snot on the lens.
    — A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 30 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoodwink.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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