Word.ws English Dictionary

hornswoggle

Syllables: horn·swog·gleUK/ˈhɔːn.swɒɡ.əl//ˈhɔɹn.swɑ.ɡəl/

hornswoggle verb: to deceive or trick.

Verb

hornswoggle (third-person singular simple present hornswoggles, present participle hornswoggling, simple past and past participle hornswoggled)

  1. (slang, transitive) To deceive or trick.
    • Don't let them hornswoggle you into buying anything you don't need.
    Synonyms:
    deceive, dupe, trick

Noun

hornswoggle

  1. (slang) nonsense; humbug

hornswoggle meaning in Tamil and Bengali

hornswoggle in Tamil

குழப்பு

hornswoggle in Bengali

প্রতারণা করা, ঠকানো, বাজে কথা, ভণ্ডামি

Synonyms of hornswoggle

Forms of hornswoggle

third-person singular presenthornswoggles
present participlehornswoggling
past participlehornswoggled
pasthornswoggled

Origin of hornswoggle

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.

Words formed from hornswoggle

Questions about hornswoggle

What does hornswoggle mean?
Hornswoggle means to deceive or trick.
What is hornswoggle in Tamil?
Hornswoggle in Tamil is குழப்பு. See Hornswoggle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hornswoggle?
Hornswoggle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce hornswoggle?
Hornswoggle is pronounced /ˈhɔːn.swɒɡ.əl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of hornswoggle?
The past tense of hornswoggle is hornswoggled.

Words near hornswoggle in the dictionary

  1. Hornstein-Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome
  2. Hornstein-Knickenberg syndrome
  3. Hornsteins
  4. hornstone
  5. hornstones
  6. hornswoggle
  7. hornswoggled
  8. hornswoggler
  9. hornswogglers
  10. hornswoggles
  11. hornswoggling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hornswoggle (page history and authors); hornswoggle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hornswoggle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hornswoggle.ogg, en-au-hornswoggle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hornswoggle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hornswoggle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.