Coax

//koʊks// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A simpleton; a dupe. obsolete

    "Go, you're a brainless Coax, a Toy, a Fop, I'll go no farther than your Name, Sir Gregory"

  2. 2
    Clipping of coaxial cable. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    a transmission line for high-frequency signals wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To fondle, kid, pet, tease. obsolete
  2. 2
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering wordnet
  3. 3
    To wheedle or persuade (a person, organisation, animal etc.) gradually or by use of flattery to do something. transitive

    "She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man."

  4. 4
    To carefully manipulate (someone or something) into a particular desired state, situation or position. transitive

    "They coaxed the rope through the pipe."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Clipping of coaxial. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
cajolewheedlewheedlecajolecoax cableinveigle

Example

More examples

"It still amazes me what she could coax out of table scraps."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Originally (1586) in the slang phrase to make a coax of, from earlier noun coax, cox, cokes "fool, simpleton", itself of obscure origin, perhaps related to cock (“male bird, pert boy”). The modern spelling is from 1706.

Etymology 2

Shortened from coaxial

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.