finagle

verb

fi·​na·​gle fə-ˈnā-gəl 

finagled; finagling fə-ˈnā-g(ə-)liŋ 

transitive verb

1

: to obtain (something) by indirect or involved means

finagle a ride home

2

: to obtain (something) by trickery

He finagled his way into the concert.

intransitive verb

: to use devious or dishonest methods to achieve one's ends

I have long craved a convention where someone had to wheel and deal, … maneuver and finagle, to win the crown.

—Mark Plotkin

finagler

fə-ˈnā-g(ə-)lər 

noun

Synonyms

• contrive
• engineer
• finesse
• frame
• machinate
• maneuver
• manipulate
• mastermind
• negotiate
• wangle

Examples of finagle in a Sentence

A con man finagled my neighbor out of four hundred dollars.

let me look at my schedule and see if I can't finagle a visit to the museum

Recent Examples on the Web

Even for the wealthiest colleges, temporarily upping annual endowment spending could require a bit of finagling. —Emma Whitford, Forbes, 3 Feb. 2025

Others have been dreading it—and would happily finagle a deal with the universe to skip to some other day four years down the road instead. —Angela Haupt, TIME, 17 Jan. 2025

The lawsuit would drag on for years before a judge ruled, in 2022, that Lynch had indeed finagled the true value of Autonomy. —airmail.news, 19 Aug. 2024

Ruby even somehow finagles AJ’s ultimate true crime fixation, Amanda Knox, into meeting AJ for dinner. —Scarlett Harris, IndieWire, 21 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

perhaps alteration of fainaigue to renege

First Known Use

circa 1924, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Kids Definition

finagle

verb

fi·​na·​gle fə-ˈnā-gəl 

finagled; finagling -g(ə-)liŋ 

: to use trickery to get what one wants

finagler

-g(ə-)lər 

noun