wheedle
verb
- coax
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈʍiː.dəl/ / /ˈwiː.dəl/
noun
Etymology: Uncertain. Perhaps continuing Middle English wedlen (“to beg, ask for alms”), from Old English wǣdlian (“to be poor, be needy, be in want, beg”), from Proto-Germanic *wēþlōną (“to be in need”). Alternatively , borrowed from German wedeln (“to wag one's tail”), from Middle High German wedelen, a byform of Middle High German wadelen (“to wander, waver, wave, whip, stroke, flutter”), from Old High German wādalōn (“to wander, roam, rove”). In this case, it may be a doublet of waddle, or an independently formed etymological equivalent. The ⟨wh⟩ spelling (reflecting pronunciations with /ʍ/) is apparently unetymological.
- A coaxing person.
verb
Etymology: Uncertain. Perhaps continuing Middle English wedlen (“to beg, ask for alms”), from Old English wǣdlian (“to be poor, be needy, be in want, beg”), from Proto-Germanic *wēþlōną (“to be in need”). Alternatively , borrowed from German wedeln (“to wag one's tail”), from Middle High German wedelen, a byform of Middle High German wadelen (“to wander, waver, wave, whip, stroke, flutter”), from Old High German wādalōn (“to wander, roam, rove”). In this case, it may be a doublet of waddle, or an independently formed etymological equivalent. The ⟨wh⟩ spelling (reflecting pronunciations with /ʍ/) is apparently unetymological.
- To cajole or attempt to persuade by flattery.
“I’d like one of those, too, if you can wheedle him into telling you where he got it.”
“[…]whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the wife of Sir William.”
- To obtain by flattery, guile, or trickery.
“If the worſt come to the worſt,—I'll turn my Wife to Graſs—I already have a deed of Settlement of the beſt part of her Eſtate; which I wheadl'd out of her; [...]”
“She tore off my cap, scratched, kicked, and buffetted me, till she had exhausted her strength, declaring, as she rested her arm, ‘that I had wheedled her husband from her.”