Finagle Definition

fə-nāgəl
finagled, finagles, finagling
verb
finagled, finagles, finagling
To use craftiness, trickery, etc.
Webster's New World
To get, arrange, or maneuver by cleverness, persuasion, etc., or esp. by craftiness, trickery, etc.
Webster's New World
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.
American Heritage
To cheat; swindle.
Shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.
American Heritage
To use clever or deceitful means to obtain or achieve something.
American Heritage
Synonyms:

Origin of Finagle

  • Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix +‎ -le (“frequentive”); compare haggle.

    From Wiktionary

  • Probably from dialectal fainaigue to cheat

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Finagle Sentence Examples

  • Cats seem to possess an inborn ability to finagle their way out of harmful situations, and one of the manifestations of this ability is the act of landing on all four feet after a fall.

  • A free reading is hard to come by, but if you have services that you can offer in trade, you may be able to finagle a reading without exchanging any cash.

  • After a series of phone calls to Denver and some monstrous lies, Dean managed to finagle a slot on the bike tour, not an easy accomplishment given the short time before the popular event.

Related Articles

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to finagle using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

FFIFIN

Words Ending With

ELEGLE

Unscrambles

finagle

Words Starting With F and Ending With E

Starts With F & Ends With EStarts With FI & Ends With EStarts With F & Ends With LE

Word Length

7 Letter Words7 Letter Words Starting With F7 Letter Words Ending With E