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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
beguile
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a slick salesman who beguiles unwary investors
▪ They beguiled the hours away on a rowboat.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All her life she had been beguiled by physical beauty in men and in women.
▪ That does not suggest the outrage that a perusal of Hansard might beguile readers into expecting.
▪ The sea had been blue and calm, beguiling the unwary.
▪ Therefore you can happily build word pictures with which to beguile and captivate an audience.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Beguile

Beguile \Be*guile"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Beguiled; p. pr. & vb. n. Beguiling.]

  1. To delude by guile, artifice, or craft; to deceive or impose on, as by a false statement; to lure.

    The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
    --Gen. iii. 13.

  2. To elude, or evade by craft; to foil. [Obs.]

    When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage.
    --Shak.

  3. To cause the time of to pass without notice; to relieve the tedium or weariness of; to while away; to divert.

    Ballads . . . to beguile his incessant wayfaring.
    --W. Irving.

    Syn: To delude; deceive; cheat; insnare; mislead; amuse; divert; entertain.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
beguile

early 13c., from be- + guile (v.). Related: Beguiled; beguiling.

Wiktionary
beguile

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To deceive or delude (using guile). 2 (context transitive English) To charm, delight or captivate.

WordNet
beguile
  1. v. influence by slyness [syn: juggle, hoodwink]

  2. attract; cause to be enamored; "She captured all the men's hearts" [syn: capture, enamour, trance, catch, becharm, enamor, captivate, charm, fascinate, bewitch, entrance, enchant]

Usage examples of "beguile".

Once his powers were nullified by our being here, he could not beguile them any longer.

And first I shrew myself, both blood and bones, If thou beguile me oftener than once.

Devon, gentle as none of them had seen him, helped to beguile her in the long weak hours between her paroxysms.

She wore a lacy creation that was meant to entice and beguile with a hint of innocence.

I shall beguile Shagpat by its means, and master the Event, and shame the King of Oolb and his Court?

The attendants rather endeavoured to beguile the time, by dexterously starting new topics of conversation, upon which Imogen delivered her plain and natural sentiments with the utmost sincerity, than to detain her by open force.

It belongs solely to proprietors of the softer sex, whom fortune has indulged as you perceive with every thing that is calculated to give new relish to the pursuits of life, and beguile the lazy foot of time.

Perched on a jutting eminence, and half shrouded in the bushes which clothed it, the silent fisherman took his place, while his fly was made to kiss the water in capricious evolutions, such as the experienced angler knows how to employ to beguile the wary victim from close cove, or gloomy hollow, or from beneath those decaying trunks of overthrown trees which have given his brood a shelter from immemorial time.

Ned Hinkley could also fancy the contemplations of such a trout as he witnessed the efforts made to beguile him out of the water.

It is easy, therefore, to deceive and betray it, to beguile it into confidence, and turn all its revelations against itself.

Upon such an instrument did the heavenly maid beguile the time when she was yet uncouthly young--at the hoydenish age when men also cajoled her with clicking sticks and the beating of hollow logs, and music was but a variety of noise.

Being so, in fact and appearance, it was quite a misfit for Christmas--a mere toy with which a gay young horse might condescend to beguile a few loose hours.

She had hair that was like silk pouring through a mans fingers, eyes that could beguile the most hardened heart, a magical power so natural and strong she dared not expose it.

So it was we were all replete, and so Beguiled by Trandilar that danger had vanished from our minds, and we were calm and still as a day in summer, lying close together in our blankets, to drift into sleep.

Enchantment enticed and beguiled Sera like a doe fascinated with her hunter.