Bamboozle
//bæmˈbuː.zl̩// noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A cheat, hoax, or imposition. informal, obsolete
Verb
- 1 To con, defraud, trick, to make a fool of, to humbug or impose on someone. informal, transitive
"“Look here, friend,” said I, “if you have anything important to tell us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game; that’s all I have to say.”"
- 2 conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end wordnet
- 3 To confuse, frustrate or perplex. informal, transitive
"He's completely bamboozled by the changes in the computer system."
Example
More examples"Don't let him bamboozle you into falling for his scam."
Etymology
Derivative of 17th-century vernacular bam (“to trick, to con”), which is a derivative of bam in noun use (fraudster, cheat). Possibly from French embobiner.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.