Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

-s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
-ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
-ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

decoy

/ˈdiːkɔɪ/ noun, verb

Forms decoys decoying decoyed

noun A person or object meant to lure somebody into danger.
noun A real or fake animal used by hunters to lure game.
noun Deceptive military device used to draw enemy attention or fire away from a more important target.
noun An assembly of hooped or netted corridors into which wild ducks may be enticed (originally by tame ducks) and trapped.
verb (transitive) To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap.
verb (intransitive) To act as, or use, a decoy. “As they were being decoyed, the rescue team carried the hostage and quietly slipped away.”

Synonyms

From Dutch de + kooi, literally "the cage". Possibly related to verb coy (which itself may have been influenced by decoy).

verb To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap; to insnare; to allure; to entice; as, to decoy troops into an ambush; to decoy ducks into a net. Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy. Thomson.
noun Anything intended to lead into a snare; a lure that deceives and misleads into danger, or into the power of an enemy; a bait.
noun A fowl, or the likeness of one, used by sportsmen to entice other fowl into a net or within shot.

Etymology [Pref. de- + coy; orig., to quiet, soothe, caress, entice. See Coy.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “decoy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details