finagle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect, complicated and/or intensive efforts.

   Finagle a day off work.

2. 2
   verb

   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.

3. 3
   verb

   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.

Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix + -le (“frequentative”), possibly influenced by inveigle; compare haggle.

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