manipulative

Mr. Sorkin’s writing can certainly be baldly manipulative, but in the movie at least the manipulation is effective.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

As Fielder later confides to Seyfried, “Either this is fully sincere and she actually has no clue about the deal Billy made, or she honestly might be the most manipulative person that’s ever lived.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

Cosseted Raymond is a manipulative brat and downtrodden Ben is noble and good, but the rescuers mistakenly believe that Raymond is the true prince.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Senior club sources have said they found the comments "absolutely bizarre", and that it was "at best naive and at worst quite manipulative, and that is not a good look".

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

The Abnegation aren’t manipulative, but they aren’t forthright, either.

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth

“Kids should be outside, they should be playing, they should be using manipulatives and tactiles.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026

I could suggest ways of bringing manipulatives to traditional paper and pencil mathematics.

From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2020

This philosophy--championed most famously by the Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget--explains the near ubiquity of counting rods and beads, known in academic circles as manipulatives, in most grade-school classrooms.

From Time Magazine Archive