wheedle

A mosquito spots the eminent man and zooms over to wheedle in his ear, but Bashō remains immobile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

Even as ex-mayor, it tickled Dick that he could wheedle an author into joining us.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2023

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

To do so, he said, “I’ve had to shove, push, cajole, persuade, wheedle, exaggerate, manipulate, flatter, be obnoxious, occasionally lie, and always sell.”

From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2022

So Voldemort had managed to wheedle the location of the lost diadem out of the Gray Lady.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

The man, 56-year-old Wu Zhiqing, complains about the quality of the mushrooms; she wheedles back in response.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

“Because of your big career that’s so much bigger than mine?” wheedles her petulant husband.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 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

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 the brook always whines and wheedles: “Don’t go, Ida B, don’t go. Nobody’s callin’ and they can wait, anyway.

From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan

His father, less a bully but now a user, had wheedled his way onto the set of “Rocky” and embarrassed him.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Then, at his busiest, with a wife and three children impatiently waiting at home, he wheedled Mel Brooks for a cameo in “Young Frankenstein.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025

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

At 16, he wheedled his way onto the staff of a local newspaper.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2018

“Please, Jess? Don’t you love me?” she wheedled.

From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser

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

“You know a lot about bathroom law,” Ben purrs to Bea when they meet-cute wheedling a restroom key from a barista.

From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2023

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

No amount of wheedling and blandishment would cause the cynical badger to change her mind.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques