wheedle

That should shut down whoever is trying to wheedle you into gimmicky strategies, or chasing the returns of recently hot assets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

The arsonists wheedle their way into his house with a combination of servile pleading, subtle bullying and appeals to Biedermann’s moral vanity.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 2022

And by clicking on that link, you’ll either download malware onto your device or be taken to a site that tries to wheedle sensitive personal information out of you.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2022

The abiding mystery is why Dale Carnegie didn’t wheedle himself a higher spot than No. 8.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2020

He was a proud and independent man who was opposed to unemployment insurance and never hesitated to whine, whimper, wheedle, and extort for as much as he could get from whomever he could.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

For one thing, “very” is a fraud, masquerading as a strengthener when it merely wheedles and pleads.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2022

“At least we tried to make a movie. They can’t judge us for that,” wheedles director Darren at the end of the film, incorrectly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2022

He jokes and wheedles and begs and tells stories and pledges his troth.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 3, 2019

THE young woman with the microphone cajoles, hectors and wheedles customers with the breathless enthusiasm of a livestock auctioneer at a county fair.

From Economist ● Jul. 18, 2017

But once in a while, Prim wheedles one out of me.

From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

Ask any nerd who wheedled her parents for a little more cash to buy books: What you get from Scholastic is what your parents are willing to buy you.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2023

He wheedled money from the city for more cops, more police stations, more equipment, and he made nice with community organizations.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023

It’s a fascinating vignette, but we never learn her real name, or what happened to her, or how she wheedled those secrets from Nazi submariners, or how useful her intel proved to Alliance and MI6.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2019

The statuette was included in the 1881 exhibition of the Impressionists — a group that Gauguin wheedled his way into as a collector.

From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2017

“Come on,” wheedled his father with a smile, “there must be something.”

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

Scientists had not yet discovered vitamins, so families did not fret about dietary “balance,” and there seems to have been little or none of the parental wheedling common today.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

“Part Two” shows Durst wheedling his friends to do his bidding from behind bars and expecting nothing less than absolute allegiance.

From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2024

Hunter Biden is such a stingy, wheedling, dishonest, self-serving dirtbag that even after the court-ordered paternity test proved the child was his, he refuses to acknowledge his own biological daughter.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 27, 2023

And certainly Marvel’s vocal characterization of the deteriorating Mary — lilting then wheedling then ratlike then hollow — is one you will not soon get out of your head.

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2022

His voice doesn’t sound wheedling, it sounds genuinely curious.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse