inveigle

enveigle (archaic)

Early corruption of French aveugler (“to blind, to delude”), from aveugle (“blind”), from the Old French avugle (“without eyes”), from Late Latin ab oculīs (“without eyes”, literally “away from the eyes”). The in- might be from other a-/en- variations found in Middle English, which was then latinised into in-.

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈveɪ.ɡəl/, /ɪnˈviː.ɡəl/

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• Rhymes: -eɪɡəl, -iːɡəl

inveigle (third-person singular simple present inveigles, present participle inveigling, simple past and past participle inveigled)

1. (transitive) To convert, convince, or win over with flattery or wiles.

   Synonyms: entice, induce, put someone up to something

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     And he that could with giftes and promiſes,
     Inueigle him that lead a thouſand horſe,
     And make him falſe his faith vnto his King,
     Will quickly win ſuch as be like himſelfe.

   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XVIII, page 218:

     Say he's been misguided by the rebels, and how they've inveigled him, till he's turned rebel himself; and how he's now out with Marion's men, in Major Singleton's squad.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     She described with the most vivid minuteness the agonies of the country families whom he had ruined—the sons whom he had plunged into dishonour and poverty—the daughters whom he had inveigled into perdition.

2. (transitive) To obtain through guile or cunning.

   He inveigled an introduction to her.

   • 1838 (date written)​, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 246:

     As Louisa had no desire to receive the attentions of the Prince, and Lady Penrhyn was well-practised in the art of inveigling, she would have soon carried her point, if she had not met with one who disputed the prize almost as adroitly as herself;...

3. (transitive, obsolete) To fool, to delude, to blind in judgement.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To ensnare, to entangle.

• Sometimes confused with inveigh.

• “inveigle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.