Finagle meaning
To use clever or deceitful means to obtain or achieve something.
verb
To obtain or achieve by cleverness or deceit, especially in persuading someone.
Finagle a day off from work; finagled a reservation at the popular restaurant.
verb
To cheat; swindle.
Shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.
verb
To get, arrange, or maneuver by cleverness, persuasion, etc., or esp. by craftiness, trickery, etc.
verb
To use craftiness, trickery, etc.
verb
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Origin of finagle
- Probably from dialectal fainaigue to cheat
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix + -le (“frequentive”); compare haggle.
From Wiktionary