Definition of "hoodwink"

(transitive, archaic) To cover the eyes with, or as if with, a hood; to blindfold.  quotations

(transitive, figuratively)

1. To deceive using a disguise; to bewile, dupe, mislead.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • For, (having many times torne the vaile of modestie) it seemed, for a laste delight, that she delighted in infamy: which often she had used to her husbands shame, filling all mens eares (but his) with reproch; while he (hoodwinkt with kindnes) lest of all mẽ [men] knew who strake him.

     c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 20”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, pages 278–279

   • [T]o have to do with you, is to have to do with a man of business who is not to be hoodwinked.

     1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Attorney and Client”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, page 388

   • The earth is given over into the hand of the Wicked One, / Who hoodwinketh the faces of its judges. / If this be not so, where, who is HE?

     1871, “Reply of Job to the First Speech of Bildad”, in John Noble Coleman, transl., The Poem of Job: The Most Ancient Book in the Universe: The First Written Revelation which God Vouchsafed to Man. […], 2nd edition, […] [T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable at the Edinburgh University Press] for private circulation, chapter IX, verse 24, page 27

   • [L]ocal prophecy declares on Merlin's authority that when the tree falls Carmarthen will fall with it. Perhaps through an unconscious desire on the part of some patriotic citizens of averting the calamity by inducing the tree-spirit to transfer its abode, or else by otherwise hoodwinking the tree-spirit into forgetting that Merlin's Oak is dead, a vigorous and now flourishing young oak has been planted so directly beside it that its foliage embraces it.

     1911, W[alter] Y[eeling] Evans-Wentz, “The Testimony of Paganism”, in The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries, London, New York, N.Y.: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, section III (The Cult of Gods, Spirits, Fairies, and the Dead), page 435

   • Ex-King Constantine would be regarded as an apt disciple so long as he succeeded in his purpose of hoodwinking the Allies.

     1917 September 21, “The Greek White Book”, in The Near East: A Weekly Review of Oriental Politics, Literature, Finance, and Commerce, volume XIII, number 333, London: The Near East Editorial and Publishing Offices, page 410, column 1

   • Can't the New York myth be exploded before Mr. De Sapio [i.e, Carmine DeSapio] hoodwinks Mr. [William Averell] Harriman and the Democratic Party?

     1955 November 7, Russell C. Stroup, “Native Sons [letter]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, volume LXVI, number 19, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., page 10, column 2

   • Is it funny in the novel to hear Gulley tell about hoodwinking his former or prospective rich patrons with absurd pranks?

     1959 January, Parker Tyler, “Has the Horse’s Mouth a Gold Tooth?”, in Albert Frankfurter, editor, ARTnews, volume 57, number 9, New York, N.Y.: Art Foundation Press, page 38, column 2

   • As his correspondence with successive aristocratic First Lords of the Admiralty reveals, he was both unctuously deferential in his dealings with his official and social superiors, and capable sometimes of hoodwinking them.

     2007, Linda Colley, “Out of the Caribbean”, in The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: How a Remarkable Woman Crossed Seas and Empires to Become a Part of World History, London: Harper Perennial, published 2008, page 39

   • In the absence of enforcement, many liurai decided to sell the coffee beans and to pocket the profits. To claw back the money, the Portuguese hired the warriors of a nearby liurai as tax collectors. This itself proved hardly a fail-safe strategy as, on many occasions, the liurai who were sent out to get the money hoodwinked the Portuguese and also kept the stash.

     2013, Gordon [Patrick] Peake, “The Portuguese Monument”, in Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles, and Secrets from Timor-Leste, Brunswick, Vic., London: Scribe Publications, page 21

2. (archaic) To hide or obscure.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Good my Lord, giue me thy fauour ſtil, / Be patient, for the prize Ile bring thee too / Shall hudwinke this miſchance: therefore ſpeake ſoftly, / All's huſht as midnight yet.

     1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 15, column 2

   • The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hoodwinked—when the harp of the poet was to be hung on the willows of Arno, and the right hand of the painter to forget its cunning.

     1827 March, [Thomas Babington Macaulay], “Art. I. Œuvres complétes de Machiavel, traduites par J. V. Perier. Paris, 1825. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume XLV, number XC, Edinburgh: […] [T]he heirs of D. Willison, for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, […]; and Adam Black, […], page 285

(intransitive, obsolete, rare) To close the eyes.  quotations

(countable) An act of hiding from sight, or something that cloaks or hides another thing from view.  quotations  examples

(Britain, games, obsolete, uncountable) The game of blind man's buff.  quotations