Skip to content

The word for today is…

hoodwink (verb):

1: to deceive by false appearance : dupe
2 archaic : blindfold
3 obsolete : hide

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology :We usually use the word wink to refer to a brief shutting of one eye, but hoodwink draws on an older and more obscure meaning of wink, “to close one’s eyes.” To hoodwink someone originally was to effectively do that kind of winking for the person; it meant to “cover someone’s eyes,” as with a hood or a blindfold. This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. “The public … is as easily hood-winked,” wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for decades—and today, that meaning of the word is far from winking out.

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest

Face of the Day

Face of the Day

Legend Eddie Low has died. He was educated at the Foundation for the Blind in Auckland. He started his first band when he was 13 and called it the Three Blind Mice.

Members Public