Dictionary

unhoodwink en · VERB

Etymology

From un- + hoodwink.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove a blindfold or blinder from.
   • The tail of the cart was turned towards the distant deer; the keeper entered it, and unhoodwinking his charge, it leaped through the door upon the ground, and there lay for a moment crouched flat on its belly; 1841, The Asiatic journal and monthly register for British and foreign India, China, and Australasia - Volume 36:
   • His judgment answered him nay. Iddin was a traitor and was but playing with his victim. If his friends had really rescued him, why did they not unbind and unhoodwink him? 1922, Walter Bliss Newgeon, Rhesa: A Romance of Babylon, page 213:
2. (transitive) To disabuse of a deception.
   • And yet this Error and Superstition is so deeply rooted in the minds of the Papists, that there is scarcely any way left to disabuse and unhoodwink them, so fatally have their Priests and Monks enchanted them. 1704, Antonio Gavin, The Frauds of Romish Monks and Priests:
   • Yes, a lot of Negroes in my time were hoodwinked. As a student I spent a lot of time trying to unhoodwink myself. 1988, Lyman T. Johnson, Wade H. Hall, The Rest of the Dream: The Black Odyssey of Lyman Johnson, page 79:
   • Following up the second part of the question of the Senator from Nebraska, understanding that the Senator from Texas agrees with the Senator from Nebraska that these duties have been put there to hoodwink the farmer and that they have hoodwinked him, could we not perhaps get his love by unhoodwinking him, undeceiving him? 1911, United States Congressional serial set - Issue 2; Issue 6093, page 3386:

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