inveigle

present singular third person inveigles · participle present inveigling · participle past inveigled · past inveigled · alternative enveigle · alternative inveagle

1. transitiveTo convert, convince, or win over with flattery or wiles.

   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.

   1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XVIII, page 218

   4 more examples

   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.

   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

   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.

   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

   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.

   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

   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.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Synonyms: entice, induce, put up to

2. transitiveTo obtain through guile or cunning.

   He inveigled an introduction to my sister from me.

   1 more example

   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;...

   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

3. obsoletetransitiveTo fool, to delude, to blind in judgement.
4. obsoletetransitiveTo ensnare, to entangle.

   1 more example

   I cannot say he behaved insolently or anything like that; on the contrary, he displayed, as a small sideshow in the theatricals I had been inveigled in, a discreet old-world civility, punctuating his movements with all sorts of mispronounced apologies ( j'ai demande pardonne - excuse me - est-ce que j'ai puis - may I - and so forth), and turning away tactfully when Valechka took down with a flourish her pink panties from the clothesline above the tub; but he seemed to be all over the place at once, le gredin , agreeing his frame with the anatomy of the flat, reading in my chair my newspaper, untying a knotted string, rolling a cigarette, counting the teaspoons, visiting the bathroom, helping his moll to wrap up the electric fan her father had given her, and carrying streetward her luggage.

   1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC