Adjacent Words

Bamboozle definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BAMBOO'ZLE, v.t. To confound; to deceiving; to play low tricks. [ A low word.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end; "He bamboozled his professors into thinking that he knew the subject well" [syn: bamboozle, snow, hoodwink, pull the wool over someone's eyes, lead by the nose, play false]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (-boozled; bamboozling) Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1703 1. to deceive by underhanded methods ; dupe, hoodwink 2. to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely <a quarterback bamboozled by an unexpected defense> • bamboozlement noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. colloq. cheat, hoax, mystify. Derivatives: bamboozlement n. bamboozler n. Etymology: c.
1700: prob. of cant orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bamboozle Bam*boo"zle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bamboozled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Bamboozling (?).] [Said to be of Gipsy origin.] To deceive by trickery; to cajole by confusing the senses; to hoax; to mystify; to humbug. [Colloq.] --Addison. What oriental tomfoolery is bamboozling you? --J. H. Newman.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bamboozles, bamboozling, bamboozled) To bamboozle someone means to confuse them greatly and often trick them. He bamboozled Mercer into defeat... He was bamboozled by con men. = dupe VERB: V n into n, be V-ed

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Deceive, cheat, dupe, beguile, mislead, inveigle, gull, trick, chouse, overreach, circumvent, defraud, mystify, hoax, impose on, practise upon, mislead.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To make a fool of any one, to humbug or impose on him.

Moby Thesaurus

addle, amaze, baffle, beat, befool, beguile, betray, bilk, bluff, boggle, buffalo, cajole, cheat on, chicane, circumvent, confound, conjure, daze, deceive, delude, diddle, double-cross, dupe, flimflam, floor, fool, forestall, fuddle, gammon, get, get around, gull, hoax, hocus-pocus, hoodwink, hornswaggle, humbug, juggle, keep in suspense, let down, lick, maze, mock, muddle, mystify, nonplus, outmaneuver, outreach, outsmart, outwit, overreach, perplex, pigeon, play one false, put something over, puzzle, snow, stick, string along, stump, swindle, take in, throw, trick, two-time