finagle
verb/fɪˈneɪ.ɡəl/US
Etymology
Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix + -le (“frequentative”), possibly influenced by inveigle; compare haggle.
Definitions
To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect, complicated and/or intensive efforts.
- finagle a day off work
To obtain, arrange, or achieve by deceitful methods, by trickery.
- finagled his way out of a ticket by pretending to be on the way to a funeral, distraught
To cheat or swindle
To cheat or swindle; to use crafty, deceitful methods. (often with "out of" preceding the object)
- shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for finagle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA