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

Leibovich is, more subtly, a brilliant interviewer able to wheedle not-quite-admissions from his subjects, who give him all the access in the world.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2022

The more other people sit stone-faced, the more I turn into a clown, trying to wheedle just little bit of encouraging energy back from them.

From Slate ● Feb. 26, 2022

She could send him to the refrigerator, which was decorated with the blank couple on the bicycle built for two—or, as now, she could wheedle, “Tell me a story, Billy boy.”

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

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

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

Wave your hands over and around two aerials emanating from a black box and hear all pitches of electronic wheedles.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 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

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

Then he had the woman hand her phone to a visiting technician and wheedled the phone number of the department head out him.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2022

Through frequent phone calls and golf games, Shinzo Abe had supposedly wheedled his way into one of the closest relationships with Trump of any world leader.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2018

“Please, Mummy,” the girl wheedled, like she hadn’t heard me.

From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman

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

So she enlisted Yala, at the time still an undergrad, who set out on the laborious door-to-door task of wheedling for access to anonymous mammograms.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2021

“Please ...” I hate the sound of my voice, the wheedling note, the desperation.

From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins