Wheedle
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A coaxing person. archaic
- 1 To cajole or attempt to persuade by flattery. ambitransitive
"I’d like one of those, too, if you can wheedle him into telling you where he got it."
- 2 influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering wordnet
- 3 To obtain by flattery, guile, or trickery. transitive
"If the worſt come to the worſt,—I'll turn my Wife to Graſs—I already have a deed of Settlement of the beſt part of her Eſtate; which I wheadl'd out of her; [...]"
Example
More examples"I tried to wheedle him into telling me the answer."
Etymology
Uncertain. Perhaps continuing Middle English wedlen (“to beg, ask for alms”), from Old English wǣdlian (“to be poor, be needy, be in want, beg”), from Proto-Germanic *wēþlōną (“to be in need”). Alternatively , borrowed from German wedeln (“to wag one's tail”), from Middle High German wedelen, a byform of Middle High German wadelen (“to wander, waver, wave, whip, stroke, flutter”), from Old High German wādalōn (“to wander, roam, rove”). In this case, it may be a doublet of waddle, or an independently formed etymological equivalent. The ⟨wh⟩ spelling (reflecting pronunciations with /ʍ/) is apparently unetymological.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.