FreeScrabbleDictionary

wheedle

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
14
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈʍiː.dəl/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈʍiː.dəl/ · /ˈwiː.dəl/

Definition of wheedle

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (ambitransitive)To cajole or attempt to persuade by flattery.
    “I’d like one of those, too, if you can wheedle him into telling you where he got it.”
    “[…]whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the wife of Sir William.”
    ““Brother Peter,” he said, in a wheedling yet gravely official tone, “It’s nothing but right I should speak to you about the Three Crofts and the Manganese. The Almighty knows what I’ve got on my mind—””
    “Anyhow, you can't wheedle him this time. He's as bent as I am.”
    “Though he had beaten me in every bone / He still could wheedle me to love.”
See all 3 definitions

verb

  1. (ambitransitive)To cajole or attempt to persuade by flattery.
    “I’d like one of those, too, if you can wheedle him into telling you where he got it.”
    “[…]whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the wife of Sir William.”
    ““Brother Peter,” he said, in a wheedling yet gravely official tone, “It’s nothing but right I should speak to you about the Three Crofts and the Manganese. The Almighty knows what I’ve got on my mind—””
    “Anyhow, you can't wheedle him this time. He's as bent as I am.”
    “Though he had beaten me in every bone / He still could wheedle me to love.”
  2. (transitive)To obtain by flattery, guile, or trickery.
    “If the worſt come to the worſt,—I'll turn my Wife to Graſs—I already have a deed of Settlement of the beſt part of her Eſtate; which I wheadl'd out of her; [...]”
    “She tore off my cap, scratched, kicked, and buffetted me, till she had exhausted her strength, declaring, as she rested her arm, ‘that I had wheedled her husband from her.”
    “[…]when their best resources were the flitches of bacon and measures of corn, out of which they wheedled poor serfs and bondsmen, in exchange for their prayers[…]”

noun

  1. (archaic)A coaxing person.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps continuing Middle English wedlen (“to beg, ask for alms”), from Old English wǣdlian (“to be poor, be needy, be in want, beg”), from Proto-Germanic *wēþlōną (“to be in…

See full etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps continuing Middle English wedlen (“to beg, ask for alms”), from Old English wǣdlian (“to be poor, be needy, be in want, beg”), from Proto-Germanic *wēþlōną (“to be in need”). Alternatively , borrowed from German wedeln (“to wag one's tail”), from Middle High German wedelen, a byform of Middle High German wadelen (“to wander, waver, wave, whip, stroke, flutter”), from Old High German wādalōn (“to wander, roam, rove”). In this case, it may be a doublet of waddle, or an independently formed etymological equivalent. The ⟨wh⟩ spelling (reflecting pronunciations with /ʍ/) is apparently unetymological.

Anagrams of wheedle

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Words you can make from wheedle

37 playable · top: WHEELED (14 pts)

Best play wheeled 14 points

6-letter words

1 word

5-letter words

4 words

4-letter words

11 words

3-letter words

13 words

2-letter words

7 words

Hooks

3 extensions · 3 back

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