finagle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person) (often followed byout of ).
He finagled the backers out of a fortune.
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to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation.
to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.
verb (used without object)
verb
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(tr) to get or achieve by trickery, craftiness, or persuasion; wangle
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to use trickery or craftiness on (a person)
Other Word Forms
- finagler noun
Etymology
Origin of finagle
An Americanism first recorded in 1925–30; finaig- (variant of fainaigue ) + -le
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
B.J. insists, underscoring his point about the influence of funk and rock music by squeezing in an Earth, Wind & Fire concert during which he finagles an excuse to join them onstage.
From Los Angeles Times
“Obsessed,” he finagled his way onto the set and into a job.
From Los Angeles Times
Hummel is one of the few who relish diagnosing their problems, taking them apart and finagling them in and out of trucks.
While the film takes a clever yet light bit of finagling to find online, it’s worth the search: “A Diva’s Christmas Carol” is a life-altering, life-affirming event movie to rival even the best Dickens alteration.
From Salon
I don’t know how these guys finagled that.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
