Thursday, November 21, 2013

Word ~ inveigle

"Could I inveigle you into feeding Babe in the evening?"

Oh, what a wonderful word!  I haven't heard or seen it used in years.  My friend Jane is having day surgery in the morning, and her son and his wife want to take her home with them afterwards.  So she emailed me the request about feeding her cat.  That's Babe in the photo I took last year when I took care of her while Jane was on a trip.

But back to the word.  Have you ever used "inveigle" yourself?  Have you heard it said?  Have you read it in a book?
in·vei·gle = verb: persuade (someone) to do something by means of deception or flattery.
"We cannot inveigle him into putting pen to paper."
Synonyms:  entice, tempt, lure, seduce, beguile, wheedle, cajole, coax, persuade.
Informal usage:  sweet-talk, soft-soap, con, sucker, snow.
"Planted in colleges are members whose only mission is to inveigle unsuspecting students into the cult."
Cross-posted on my word blog.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Never heard this word.