Definition of "beguile"

And as wililye as thoſe ſhrewes that beguyle hym haue holpe hym to inuolue and intryke the matter: I ſhall vſe ſo playn and open a way therin, that euery man ſhall well ſee the trouth.

1533 (date written), Thomas More, “The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance […]. Chapter XVIJ.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published April 1557, page 1004, column 2

I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], line 102

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.

1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 213

They beguile the tedium of this enforced leisure by weaving baskets and playing on certain sacred flutes.

1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 11, page 241