different between decoy vs inveigle

English

Etymology

From Dutch de +? kooi, literally "the cage". Possibly related to verb coy (which itself may have been influenced by decoy).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?di?k??/

Noun

decoy (plural decoys)

1. A person or object meant to lure somebody into danger.
2. A real or fake animal used by hunters to lure game.

Translations

Verb

decoy (third-person singular simple present decoys, present participle decoying, simple past and past participle decoyed)

1. (transitive) To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap.

   to decoy troops into an ambush; to decoy ducks into a net

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     E'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, / The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.

2. (intransitive) To act as, or use, a decoy. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• deke

Translations

Anagrams

• coyed

English

Etymology

Early corruption of French aveugler (“to blind, to delude”), from aveugle (“blind”), from the Old French avugle (“without eyes”), from Late Latin ab ocul?s (“without eyes”, literally “away from the eyes”). The in- might be from other a-/en- variations found in Middle English, which was then latinised into in-.

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /?n?ve?.??l/, /?n?vi?.??l/
• ,
• Rhymes: -e???l, -i???l

Verb

inveigle (third-person singular simple present inveigles, present participle inveigling, simple past and past participle inveigled)

1. (transitive) To convert, convince, or win over with flattery or wiles.

   Synonyms: entice, induce, put someone up to something

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 19:

     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.

2. (transitive) To obtain through guile or cunning.

   He inveigled an introduction to her.

Usage notes

• Sometimes confused with inveigh.

Translations

Further reading

• “inveigle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.