beguile

Verb

beguile (third-person singular simple present beguiles, present participle beguiling, simple past and past participle beguiled)

1. (transitive) To deceive or delude (using guile).
   • And as wililye as thoſe ſhrewes that beguyle hym haue holpe hym to inuolue and intryke the matter: I ſhall vſe ſo playn and open a way therin, that euery man ſhall well ſee the trouth.1533 (date written), Thomas More, “The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance […]. Chapter XVIJ.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […]...
   • I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
2. (transitive) To charm, delight or captivate.
   • I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston
   • I will never touch The Orb, even though its mysterious glow seduces and beguiles.
3. (transitive) To cause (time) to seem to pass quickly, by way of pleasant diversion.
   • We beguiled the hours away.
   • They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 213