Question

hoodwink verb A now-obsolete sense of the word "wink" is "to close one's eyes," and "hoodwink" once meant to cover the eyes of someone, such as a prisoner, with a hood or blindfold. ("Hoodwink" was also once a name for the game of blindman's buff.) This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. "The Public is easily hood-winked," wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for almost a century and a half. Over two hundred and fifty years later, this meaning of the word hasn't changed a wink. : to deceive by false appearance : dupe

Accepted Answer

August 4, 2013 HOOD-wink By making it look like a fun, enjoyable privilege instead of an exhausting chore, Tom Sawyer hoodwinks Ben Rogers into helping him whitewash Aunt Polly's fence.   "In Moliére's classic comedy, the religious fraud Tartuffe has hoodwinked rich merchant Orgon and is poised to marry his host's teenage daughter, to seduce his lovely wife and to take over his gullible patron’s fortune-unless someone stops him." - From an article in The Edmond Sun (Oklahoma), June 25, 2013

Word	hoodwink
Date	August 4, 2013
Type	verb
Syllables	HOOD-wink
Etymology	A now-obsolete sense of the word "wink" is "to close one's eyes," and "hoodwink" once meant to cover the eyes of someone, such as a prisoner, with a hood or blindfold. ("Hoodwink" was also once a name for the game of blindman's buff.) This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. "The Public is easily hood-winked," wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for almost a century and a half. Over two hundred and fifty years later, this meaning of the word hasn't changed a wink.
Examples	By making it look like a fun, enjoyable privilege instead of an exhausting chore, Tom Sawyer hoodwinks Ben Rogers into helping him whitewash Aunt Polly's fence. "In Moliére's classic comedy, the religious fraud Tartuffe has hoodwinked rich merchant Orgon and is poised to marry his host's teenage daughter, to seduce his lovely wife and to take over his gullible patron’s fortune-unless someone stops him." - From an article in The Edmond Sun (Oklahoma), June 25, 2013
Definition	: to deceive by false appearance : dupe

Word Hoodwink August Verb Hood Wink Now Obsolete Sense Wink