finagle
/fɪˈneɪ.ɡəl/ verb
Forms finagles finagling finagled finangle phenagle
- verb (transitive) To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect, complicated and/or intensive efforts. “finagle a day off work”
- verb (transitive) To obtain, arrange, or achieve by deceitful methods, by trickery. “finagled his way out of a ticket by pretending to be on the way to a funeral, distraught”
- verb (ambitransitive) To cheat or swindle; to use crafty, deceitful methods. (often with "out of" preceding the object) “shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix + -le (“frequentative”), possibly influenced by inveigle; compare haggle.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “finagle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details