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decoy
[ noun dee-koi, dih-koi; verb dih-koi ]
noun
- a person who entices or lures another person or thing, as into danger, a trap, or the like.
- anything used as a lure.
Synonyms: allurement, inducement, bait, enticement
- a trained bird or other animal used to entice game into a trap or within gunshot.
- an artificial bird, as a painted wooden duck, used for the same purpose.
- a pond into which wild fowl are lured for capture.
- an object capable of reflecting radar waves, used as a spurious aircraft, missile, chaff, etc., for the deception of radar detectors.
verb (used with object)
- to lure by or as if by a decoy:
They decoyed the ducks to an area right in front of the blind.
verb (used without object)
- to become decoyed:
Ducks decoy more easily than most other waterfowl.
decoy
noun
- a person or thing used to beguile or lead someone into danger; lure
- military something designed to deceive an enemy or divert his attention
- a bird or animal, or an image of one, used to lure game into a trap or within shooting range
- an enclosed space or large trap, often with a wide funnelled entrance, into which game can be lured for capture
- See dekeanother word for deke
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Derived Forms
- deˈcoyer, noun
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Other Words From
- de·coyer noun
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of decoy1
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Example Sentences
The former decoy did as bid as Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan entered.
Lönnborg, who works as a lawyer in London, has on several occasions posed as Elin, acting as a decoy to throw off the paparazzi.
The impudence of the authorities, to decoy an unsuspecting workingman across the State line, and then arrest him as my accomplice!
The boy's pulses leaped toward these things even while his lips curled in disdain at the shallow decoy.
You make use of your power to run a common decoy house, to do away with men for money.
The decoy was barely in place before he was on the floor while a volley of lead and a flight of arrows rained against the roof.
They saw nothing but the wretched decoy vanishing behind the nearest tents.
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