HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY
To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.
Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.
THE USAGE PANEL
The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG
The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
| n. 1. A stratagem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare. 2. A disarming or seductive manner, device, or procedure: the wiles of a skilled negotiator. tr.v. wiled, wil·ing, wiles 1. To influence or lead by means of wiles; entice: “Could the Erl-king's Daughter have revealed herself to me ... she might have wiled me by the hand into the dimmest forests upon earth” (Thomas De Quincey). 2. To pass (time) agreeably: wile away a Sunday afternoon. [Middle English wil, from Old North French, from Old Norse vēl, trick, or of Low German origin. Verb, sense 2, influenced by WHILE.] Synonyms: wile, artifice, trick, ruse, feint, stratagem, maneuver, dodge These nouns denote means for achieving an end by indirection or deviousness. Wile suggests deceiving and entrapping a victim by playing on that victim's weak points: “Eve yielded to the wiles of the arch tempter” (James Joyce). Artifice refers to something especially contrived to create a desired effect: “Should the public forgive artifices used to avoid military service?” (Godfrey Sperling). Trick implies willful deception: “The ... boys ... had all sorts of tricks to prevent us from winning” (W.H. Hudson). Ruse stresses the creation of a false impression: “It is perfidy to use a flag of truce as a ruse to acquire military information or to play for time to retreat” (Thaddeus Holt). Feint denotes a deceptive act calculated to distract attention from one's real purpose: “Rob ... sat staring at him, and affecting to snivel with sympathy, and making a feint of being virtuous, and treasuring up every word he said (like a young spy as he was) with very promising deceit” (Charles Dickens). Stratagem implies carefully planned deception used to achieve an objective: “He was ... daring in the administrative stratagems he employed to bring himself to the attention of his superiors” (Joseph Heller). Maneuver and dodge stress shifty and ingenious deception: “[He] was being accused of shady banking maneuvers and abusing his influence for his own financial gain” (Porter Shreve). “At my age one has had a considerable experience of the ins and outs, the dodges that accompany self-interest” (Saul Bellow). |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
