hornswoggle (redirected from hornswoggling)

horn·swog·gle  (hôrnswgl)

tr.v. horn·swog·gled, horn·swog·gling, horn·swog·gles Chiefly Northern & Western U.S.

To bamboozle; deceive.

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[Origin unknown.]

Our Living Language We do not know the origin of hornswoggle. We do know that it belongs to a group of "fancified" words that were particularly popular in the American West in the 19th century. Hornswoggle is one of the earliest, first appearing around 1829. It is possible that these words were invented to poke fun at the more "sophisticated" East. Some other words of this ilk are absquatulate, also first appearing in the 1820s, skedaddle, first attested in 1861 in Missouri, and discombobulate, first recorded in 1916.

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hornswoggle [ˈhɔːnˌswɒg^əl]

vb

(tr) Slang to cheat or trick; bamboozle

[of unknown origin]

Thesaurus

Verb

1.

hornswoggle - deprive of by deceit; "He swindled me out of my inheritance"; "She defrauded the customers who trusted her"; "the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change" bunco, con, defraud, diddle, gip, goldbrick, gyp, mulct, nobble, rook, scam, swindle, short-change, victimize short, short-change - cheat someone by not returning him enough money cheat, rip off, chisel - deprive somebody of something by deceit; "The con-man beat me out of $50"; "This salesman ripped us off!"; "we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme"; "They chiseled me out of my money"