finagle - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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fi·na·gle

Audio Help [fi-ney-guh

l] Pronunciation Key verb, -gled, -gling.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person) (often fol. by out of): He finagled the backers out of a fortune.

2.	to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation: to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.

–verb (used without object)

3.	to practice deception or fraud; scheme.

[Origin: 1925–30, Americanism; finaig- (var. of fainaigue) + -le

]

—Related forms

fi·na·gler, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
finagle

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fi·na·gle Audio Help   (fə-nā'gəl) Pronunciation Key
v.   fi·na·gled, fi·na·gling, fi·na·gles Informal

v.   tr.

To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods: finagle a day off from work.
To cheat; swindle: shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.

v. intr.
To use crafty, deceitful methods.

[Probably from dialectal fainaigue, to cheat.]

fi·na'gler n.

1926, Amer.Eng., possibly a variant of Eng. dial. fuinaigue "to cheat or renege" (at cards), of unknown origin.

finagle
verb
achieve something by means of trickery or devious methods [syn: wangle]

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