Other forms: ploys
A ploy is a move made to trick somebody into reacting. A clever ploy, a delaying ploy, just a ploy.
It is calculated and usually transparent once seen: a delaying ploy, a negotiating ploy, a marketing ploy. It is milder than a trick because the aim is to provoke a reaction rather than to deceive outright. Note that ploy is Scottish in origin, where it meant an escapade or a piece of business, and the sense of a manoeuvre came later, probably by association with employ and deploy.
1nounployA move made to trick somebody into reacting.
“The player fell over in the penalty area, but it was only a ploy to win a kick.”
ploy is a calculated manoeuvre.
The word is Scots from about 1715, meaning a piece of business or an escapade, of uncertain origin. It may be a shortening of employ or deploy, or from an older French word for bending.
Proto-Indo-European
*pelḱ-
Latin
plicāre
Middle French
ployer
English, today
ploy
Possibly from a shortened form of employ or deploy. Or from earlier ploye, from Middle English -, borrowed from Middle French ployer (compare modern plier), from Latin plicāre.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA