Hoodwinkery

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process or act of hoodwinking; deception, trickery. informal, uncountable

    "This actress is a brilliant comedienne, a mistress of the art of insinuation, extremely skilled in the hoodwinkery of gestures of which Duse was the greatest exponent."

  2. 2
    An instance of hoodwinking; a deception or trick. countable, informal, rare

    "When a conjurer truly enjoys his work, when he radiates that uncounterfeitable pleasure he derives from doing his mysterious hoodwinkeries, no audience in the world can resist him."

Example

More examples

"This actress is a brilliant comedienne, a mistress of the art of insinuation, extremely skilled in the hoodwinkery of gestures of which Duse was the greatest exponent."

Etymology

From hoodwink (“to deceive using a disguise; to bewile, dupe, mislead”) + -ery.

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