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
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2
as in to cheat
to use dishonest methods to achieve a goal
she'll finagle until she gets exactly what she wants
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of finagle
Having finagled an invite from Prater’s steely assistant, Charley (Uma Thurman, sporting an asymmetrical bob and a disgusted glower), Dexter infiltrates the group looking for villains to bring to his kill table.
—
EW.com, 10 July 2025
This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 June 2025
Plus, there are only so many shenanigans F1 will tolerate from one driver trying to finagle the race outcome.
—Sahil Kapur, NBC news, 17 June 2025
In the concluding moments of the finale, Sofia receives a letter from Selina, providing her with a glimmer of hope after Oz finagled her readmittance to Arkham.
—Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 9 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for finagle
EW.com, 10 July 2025
This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 June 2025
Plus, there are only so many shenanigans F1 will tolerate from one driver trying to finagle the race outcome.
—Sahil Kapur, NBC news, 17 June 2025
In the concluding moments of the finale, Sofia receives a letter from Selina, providing her with a glimmer of hope after Oz finagled her readmittance to Arkham.
—Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 9 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for finagle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for finagle
Verb
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Many countries have sought to negotiate to remove or reduce the tariffs, some have made deals, while others have enforced counter tariffs.—
Ross O'Keefe,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
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The Blackhawks and Kaiser’s agent had been negotiating for some time this offseason, but neither side had been in a rush, with the 23-year-old Kaiser having no arbitration rights.—
Scott Powers,
New York Times,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Student use of artificial intelligence has become so prevalent, high school and college educators say, that to assign writing outside of the classroom is like asking students to cheat.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
12 Sep. 2025
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There are things worse than cheating.—
Essence,
Essence,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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That could delay clarity on how Sullivan will arrange his D pairs.—
Vincent Z. Mercogliano,
New York Times,
18 Sep. 2025
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That’s the 20th century approach, before everybody had a mobile app that can arrange rides, give instructions and track locations.—
Brad Templeton,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In this approach, quantum information is encoded in various properties of photons, and computation is performed by manipulating these photonic states using optical components.—
Gil Press,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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Tahoe is obviously getting more aggressive with icon-shape enforcement, up to and including automatically manipulating them and sentencing them to icon jail.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
15 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Finagle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/finagle. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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