1
as in to negotiate
to plan out usually with subtle skill or care
let me look at my schedule and see if I can't finagle a visit to the museum
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to cheat
to use dishonest methods to achieve a goal
she'll finagle until she gets exactly what she wants
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of finagle
Even for the wealthiest colleges, temporarily upping annual endowment spending could require a bit of finagling.
—
Emma Whitford, Forbes, 3 Feb. 2025
Others have been dreading it—and would happily finagle a deal with the universe to skip to some other day four years down the road instead.
—Angela Haupt, TIME, 17 Jan. 2025
The lawsuit would drag on for years before a judge ruled, in 2022, that Lynch had indeed finagled the true value of Autonomy.
—airmail.news, 19 Aug. 2024
Ruby even somehow finagles AJ’s ultimate true crime fixation, Amanda Knox, into meeting AJ for dinner.
—Scarlett Harris, IndieWire, 21 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for finagle
Emma Whitford, Forbes, 3 Feb. 2025
Others have been dreading it—and would happily finagle a deal with the universe to skip to some other day four years down the road instead.
—Angela Haupt, TIME, 17 Jan. 2025
The lawsuit would drag on for years before a judge ruled, in 2022, that Lynch had indeed finagled the true value of Autonomy.
—airmail.news, 19 Aug. 2024
Ruby even somehow finagles AJ’s ultimate true crime fixation, Amanda Knox, into meeting AJ for dinner.
—Scarlett Harris, IndieWire, 21 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for finagle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for finagle
Verb
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The acquisition was negotiated by Miles Fineburg representing Samuel Goldwyn Films, with Studiocanal’s team including Chloe Marquet (head of international sales), Charlotte Lopez (senior VP of international sales) and Sophie Leuthreau (head of business and legal affairs international distribution).—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
7 Apr. 2025
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Michael Barbaro speaks to Thomas Sipp, a lawyer who chose to quit after his firm, Skadden, negotiated a deal to placate the president. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture.—
Michael Barbaro,
New York Times,
7 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Okay, cheating here a little, as Zendaya has already been cast as Ronnie Spector in Barry Jenkins’s biopic of the iconic singer and lead of the ’60s girl group the Ronettes.—
Anna Cafolla,
Vogue,
3 Apr. 2025
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Trump cheers major voter ID win — says Dems can’t 'cheat' anymore.—
FOXNews.com,
FOXNews.com,
2 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Oz: On [Richard’s] birthday, Laura arranged for maybe a dozen Civil War reenactors to come galloping onto the set.—
Andy Greene,
Rolling Stone,
9 Apr. 2025
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But the human author was a sort of conductor: prompting, arranging, intervening.—
Anna Wiener,
New Yorker,
9 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Decades earlier, Loftus had demonstrated that people’s memories of visual details could be manipulated by posing questions that contained misinformation.—
Bernice Andrews,
Scientific American,
8 Apr. 2025
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While Ticketmaster denies using surge pricing or dynamic algorithms to manipulate prices, fans like Jessica Chou question if their early participation in presales might be contributing to higher initial costs.—
Caché McClay,
USA Today,
8 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Finagle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagle. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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