wile
A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deceptionA trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice
Recorded US: Speaker: Persent101 Recorder: Persent101, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» She is a woman of many wiles.
anzart · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(usually plural)A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice
He was seduced by her wiles.
Schlich
уло́вкаulóvka, хи́тростьxítrostʹ, ухищре́ниеuxiščrénije
хи́трістьxýtristʹ, хитрува́нняxytruvánnja
- the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)
Examples
7 sentencesShe is a woman of many wiles.
He is a man of many wiles.
She used her feminine wiles to seduce him.
ruОна применила свои женские хитрости, чтобы соблазнить его. — soweli_Elepanto
The rustic youth was as yet ignorant of the wiles of love.
Mary used her feminine wiles to hoodwink Tom into revealing state secrets.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīFrom Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīl (“wile, trick”) and wiġle (“divination”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą (“craft, deceit”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”)) and Proto-Germanic *wigulą, *wihulą (“prophecy”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to consecrate, hallow, make holy”)). Cognate with Icelandic vél, væl (“artifice, craft, device, fraud, trick”), Dutch wijle. Doublet of guile.
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Forms
plural: wilesSynonyms
7 synonyms- the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them):trickerychicanerychicaneguileshenanigan
Word family
3 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.