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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hornswoggle.

To deceive or trick.

11 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈhɔːn.swɒɡ.əl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɔɹn.swɑ.ɡəl/General-American
  1. To deceive or trick.

    slang · transitive
    Don't let them hornswoggle you into buying anything you don't need.
Where this word comes from

Unknown, 1829 US, jocular coinage like contemporary absquatulate. Presumably horns + waggle with humorous faux ablaut or combination with wobble (compare later woggle, 1923), perhaps inspired by lassoed steers trying to escape by moving their head.

noun/ˈhɔːn.swɒɡ.əl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɔɹn.swɑ.ɡəl/General-American
  1. nonsense; humbug

    slang
Where this word comes from

Unknown, 1829 US, jocular coinage like contemporary absquatulate. Presumably horns + waggle with humorous faux ablaut or combination with wobble (compare later woggle, 1923), perhaps inspired by lassoed steers trying to escape by moving their head.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.