hoodwink

present singular third person hoodwinks · participle present hoodwinking · participle past hoodwinked · past hoodwinked · first person past singular hoodwinked · archaic present second person singular hoodwinkest · past second person singular hoodwinked · archaic past second person singular hoodwinkedst · present singular third person hoodwinks · archaic present singular third person hoodwinketh · past singular third person hoodwinked · past plural hoodwinked · past subjunctive hoodwinked · participle present hoodwinking · participle past hoodwinked

1. archaictransitiveTo cover the eyes with, or as if with, a hood; to blindfold.First known use mid 16th c.

   Some there are, that through feare anticipate the hang-mans hand; as he did, whoſe friends having obtained his pardon, and putting away the cloth wherewith he was hood-winkt, that he might heare it read, was found ſtarke dead vpon the ſcaffold, wounded onely by the ſtroke of imagination.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of the Force of Imagination”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 40

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   It is the cuſtome of theſe maydes when they walke in the ſtreetes, to couer their faces with their vailes verecundiæ cauſâ [because of modesty], the ſtuffe being ſo thin and ſlight, that they may eaſily looke through it. For it is made of a pretty ſlender ſilke, and very finely curled: ſo that becauſe ſhe thus hoodwinketh her ſelfe, you can very ſeldome ſee her face at full when ſhe walketh abroad, though perhaps you earneſtly deſire it, but only a little glimpſe thereof.

   1611, Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], “My Obseruations of the Most Glorious, Peerelesse, and Mayden Citie of Venice: […]”, in Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC, page 261, lines 9–16

2. figurativelytransitiveTo deceive using a disguise; to beguile, dupe, mislead.

   [T]o have to do with you, is to have to do with a man of business who is not to be hoodwinked.

   1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Attorney and Client”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 388

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   For, (having many times torne the vaile of modestie) it seemed, for a laste delight, that she delighted in infamy: which often she had used to her husbands shame, filling all mens eares (but his) with reproch; while he (hoodwinkt with kindnes) lest of all mẽ [men] knew who strake him.

   The New Arcadia

   c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC

   The earth is given over into the hand of the Wicked One, / Who hoodwinketh the faces of its judges. / If this be not so, where, who is HE?

   1871, “Reply of Job to the First Speech of Bildad”, in John Noble Coleman, transl., The Poem of Job: The Most Ancient Book in the Universe: The First Written Revelation which God Vouchsafed to Man. […], 2nd edition, […] [T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable at the Edinburgh University Press] for private circulation, →OCLC, chapter IX, verse 24, page 27

   [L]ocal prophecy declares on Merlin's authority that when the tree falls Carmarthen will fall with it. Perhaps through an unconscious desire on the part of some patriotic citizens of averting the calamity by inducing the tree-spirit to transfer its abode, or else by otherwise hoodwinking the tree-spirit into forgetting that Merlin's Oak is dead, a vigorous and now flourishing young oak has been planted so directly beside it that its foliage embraces it.

   1911, W[alter] Y[eeling] Evans-Wentz, “The Testimony of Paganism”, in The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries, London; New York, N.Y.: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, section III (The Cult of Gods, Spirits, Fairies, and the Dead), page 435

   Ex-King Constantine would be regarded as an apt disciple so long as he succeeded in his purpose of hoodwinking the Allies.

   1917 September 21, “The Greek White Book”, in The Near East: A Weekly Review of Oriental Politics, Literature, Finance, and Commerce, volume XIII, number 333, London: The Near East Editorial and Publishing Offices, →OCLC, page 410, column 1

   Can't the New York myth be exploded before Mr. De Sapio [i.e, Carmine DeSapio] hoodwinks Mr. [William Averell] Harriman and the Democratic Party?

   1955 November 7, Russell C. Stroup, “Native Sons [letter]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, volume LXVI, number 19, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 2

   Synonyms: snow

3. archaicfigurativelytransitiveTo hide or obscure.

   Good my Lord, giue me thy fauour ſtil, / Be patient, for the prize Ile bring thee too / Shall hudwinke this miſchance: therefore ſpeake ſoftly, / All's huſht as midnight yet.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 15, column 2

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   The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hoodwinked—when the harp of the poet was to be hung on the willows of Arno, and the right hand of the painter to forget its cunning.

   1827 March, [Thomas Babington Macaulay], “Art. I. Œuvres complétes de Machiavel, traduites par J. V. Perier. Paris, 1825. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume XLV, number XC, Edinburgh: […] [T]he heirs of D. Willison, for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, […]; and Adam Black, […], →OCLC, page 285

4. intransitiveobsoleterareTo close the eyes.

   [W]herfore haue you ſate ſtill, and comply'd and hood-winkt, till the generall complaints of the Land have ſqeez'd you to a wretched, cold and hollow-hearted confeſſion of ſome Prelaticall riots both in this and other places of your Booke.

   1641, [John Milton], Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus, London: […] [Richard Oulton and Gregory Dexter] for Thomas Vnderhill, […], →OCLC, page 15

plural hoodwinks

1. countableAn act of hiding from sight, or something that cloaks or hides another thing from view.

   What think you of Flattery, Fondneſs, and Tears? Thoſe are Hood-winks that Wives have ready upon every Occaſion.

   a. 1733, [John] Gay, The Distress’d Wife. A Comedy, London: […] Thomas Astley […], published 1743, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 8

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   Here were old buildings, and mazy webs of wandering; soft cliff was handy, dark wood and rushing waters, tangled lanes, fuzzy corners, nooks of overhanging, depths of in-and-out hood-winks of nature, when she does not wish man to know everything about her.

   1894, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “The Pride of Life”, in Perlycross: A Tale of the Western Hills, London: Sampson Low, Marston, & Company […], →OCLC, page 417

2. UKobsoleteuncountablegamesThe game of blind man's buff.

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   Whereas the Mountaine Nymphs, and thoſe that doe frequent / The Fountaines, Fields, and Groues, with wondrous meriment, / By Moone-ſhine many a night, doe giue each other chaſe, / At Hood-winke, Barley-breake, at Tick, or Priſon-baſe, / With tricks, and antique toyes, that one another mocke, / That skip from Crag to Crag, and leape from Rocke to Rocke.

   1622, Michael Drayton, “The Thirtieth Song”, in The Second Part, or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song. […], London: […] Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriott, Iohn Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, →OCLC, page 164

   Synonyms: hoodman-blind