lead someone up the garden path
Syllables: lead some·one up the gar·den pathUK/ˈliːd ˌsʌmwʌn ˈʌp ðə ˈɡɑːdn̩ pɑːθ//ˈlid ˌsʌmwʌn ˈʌp ðə ˈɡɑɹdən ˌpæθ/
lead someone up the garden path verb: to deceive, hoodwink, mislead, or seduce someone.
Verb
lead someone up the garden path (third-person singular simple present leads someone up the garden path, present participle leading someone up the garden path, simple past and past participle led someone up the garden path)
- To deceive, hoodwink, mislead, or seduce someone.
- "You're a pair of conspiring females," he growled. "A fine couple of contriving minxes! You've even led my Peterkin up the garden path."1969, Erich Kästner, translated by Cyrus Brooks, Lottie and Lisa, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- lead someone down the garden path, lead someone up the garden
lead someone up the garden path meaning in Bengali and Malayalam
lead someone up the garden path in Bengali
- কাউকে প্রতারিত করা, বিভ্রান্ত করা, প্রলুব্ধ করা
lead someone up the garden path in Malayalam
- deceive, mislead, delude
- വഴിതെറ്റിക്കുക, വിമോഹിപ്പിക്കുക, അബദ്ധത്തിൽ ചാടിക്കുക, വെട്ടിൽവീഴ്ത്തുക, ഭ്രമിപ്പിക്കുക, തെറ്റായ സൂചനയോ അടയാളമോ കൊടുക്കുക
Synonyms of lead someone up the garden path
- lead someone down the garden path
- lead someone up the garden
Forms of lead someone up the garden path
| third-person singular present | leads someone up the garden path |
|---|---|
| present participle | leading someone up the garden path |
| past participle | led someone up the garden path |
| past | led someone up the garden path |
Origin of lead someone up the garden path
Probably a reference to the fact that a garden path is often winding instead of direct.
Words formed from lead someone up the garden path
Questions about lead someone up the garden path
- What does lead someone up the garden path mean?
- Lead someone up the garden path means to deceive, hoodwink, mislead, or seduce someone.
- What is lead someone up the garden path in Bengali?
- Lead someone up the garden path in Bengali is কাউকে প্রতারিত করা, বিভ্রান্ত করা, প্রলুব্ধ করা. See Lead someone up the garden path meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is lead someone up the garden path?
- Lead someone up the garden path is a verb.
- How do you pronounce lead someone up the garden path?
- Lead someone up the garden path is pronounced /ˈliːd ˌsʌmwʌn ˈʌp ðə ˈɡɑːdn̩ pɑːθ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of lead someone up the garden path?
- The past tense of lead someone up the garden path is led someone up the garden path.
Words near lead someone up the garden path in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lead someone up the garden path (page history and authors); lead someone up the garden path (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lead someone up the garden path (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-lead someone up the garden path.mp3.
Cite this entry: “lead someone up the garden path.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lead_someone_up_the_garden_path. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.