Other forms: hoodwinked, hoodwinking
To hoodwink is to deceive somebody by a trick. Hoodwink the public, hoodwinked into signing, easily hoodwinked.
It implies the victim was fooled rather than forced, which is why it carries a little contempt for both parties. The origin is literal: to hoodwink first meant to blindfold, from hood plus wink in the old sense of closing the eyes — a hawk was hooded to keep it calm.
1verbhoodwinkTo deceive somebody by a trick.
“The con man hoodwinked elderly people into handing over their savings.”
hoodwink is a deceiving.
Hood plus wink, in the old sense of closing the eyes. The word first meant to blindfold.
The verb is derived from hood + wink. (< C16 'to blindfold'). The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA