delude
/dɪˈl(j)uːd
/verb [with object]
Make (someone) believe something that is not true: too many theorists have deluded the public (as adjective deluded) the poor deluded creature...
- I'm always amazed that otherwise intelligent people are deluded into believing its truth.
- In many ways it is even deluding people to believe in something that is not the case.
- Those who tried to delude the people into believing that this was the last war were either fools or knaves, and he inclined to think that there were more knaves than fools.
Synonyms
mislead, deceive, fool, take in, trick, dupe, hoodwink, double-cross, gull, beguile, lead on;
cheat, defraud, swindle
informal con, bamboozle, pull the wool over someone's eyes, pull a fast one on, lead up the garden path, take for a ride, put one over on
North American informal sucker, snooker, hornswoggle
Australian informal pull a swifty on
literary cozen, illude
Derivatives
deludedly
- They are condemned, and they deludedly believe that they are commanded, to spread the contagion and to visit hell upon the unrighteous.
- And having read the deludedly self-important and crass drivel which prompted it, I thought I'd add my voice to the others who agree with you.
- Maybe a small part of me did blame her for the divorce, had deludedly believed that Dad would come back.
deluder
- Yet when Tartuffe is scuppered by his all-too-real lust for Elmire, we see the deluder deluded.
- Twain discovered that pointing out just how ludicrous are the affectations of the fakers - both the deluders and the self-deluded - can often show just how empty are their claims.
- The General Court called for every town to establish a grammar school in order to thwart ‘one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from knowledge of Scriptures…’
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin deludere 'to mock', from de- (with pejorative force) + ludere 'to play'.
This is from Latin deludere ‘to mock’, from de- (here with pejorative force) and ludere ‘to play’.
Rhymes
- non-sexist
- non-sexual
- non-sexually
- non-significance
- non-significant
- non-significative
- non-simultaneity
- non-simultaneous
- non-singular
- non-sked
- non-skid
- non-skidding
- nonslaveholder
- non-slaveholding
- non-slip
- non-slipping
- non-smoker
- non-smoking
- non-socialist
- non-society
- non-solid colour
- non-soluble
- non-solvency
- non-solvent
- non-speak