Fromhoodwink(“to deceive using a disguise; to bewile, dupe, mislead”) +-ery.
hoodwinkery (countable anduncountable,pluralhoodwinkeries)(informal)
- (uncountable) The process or act ofhoodwinking;deception,trickery.
1958, George Freedley,The Lunts, Macmillan, page77:This actress is a brilliant comedienne, a mistress of the art of insinuation, extremely skilled in thehoodwinkery of gestures of which Duse was the greatest exponent.
1973, Bob Bartlett, quotee,Legal Compilation; Statutes and Legislative History, Executive Orders, Regulations, Guidelines and Reports, volume 2, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, page1057:I do not level a blanket accusation ofhoodwinkery and deception. I only say that there have been such cases of this in the past, and I am pleased to say that the chances of such cases happening in the future would be considerably reduced by passage of the proposed legislation and by section 212 of the bill in particular.
1979, Fanny Howe,Holy Smoke, University of Alabama Press,→ISBN, page17:For there is no greater loss than the loss of a child—to the world'shoodwinkery. To the arms of the galaxies. To being shadowed by the hood of Nothingness.
2009 August 24, Scott Brown, “Wired's Guide to Hoaxes: How to Give — and Take — a Joke”, inWired[1]:The source ofhoodwinkery has shifted from the all-powerful (ad agencies, governments, MTV) to the tweeting masses—and lo, charlatanism is democratized.
2019 June 12, Stephanie Zacharek, “Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan Film Rolling Thunder Revue Is One of the Most Truthful Movies You'll See in 2019”, inTime[2]:Why would Dylan tell such an outlandish lie? Why would he not? That's barely the beginning of Scorsese and Dylan'shoodwinkery: The two are like mischievous twins, playing jokes on mom. It's unusual to see Scorsese, as a filmmaker, cut up this way, and it's wonderful.
2022 March 19, Joel Golby, “Love in the Flesh: it's Love Island-lite – but have they swapped nudes beforehand?”, inThe Guardian[3]:Post-Love Island, we have the weaponised horniness of Too Hot to Handle, thehoodwinkery of Ready to Mingle, we have a landscape where Love Is Blind is allowed to happen, and I would even argue that the ancient format of Married at First Sight had a Love Island-adjacent uplift.
- (countable, rare) An instance of hoodwinking; adeception ortrick.
1940, Jean Hugard, Frederick Braué,Expert Card Technique, Dover Publications,→ISBN, page435:When a conjurer truly enjoys his work, when he radiates that uncounterfeitable pleasure he derives from doing his mysterioushoodwinkeries, no audience in the world can resist him.
1946, Montague Summers,Witchcraft and Black Magic, Dover Publications,→ISBN, page112:He had found the time to dip into a good many books, and proved an adept in the art of persuading people that he had plumbed the depths of his subject, whereas he had barely skimmed the surface, ahoodwinkery which for success requires a certain native coolness and poker-face skill.
2021 April 1, Michael Harriot, “If You're Black, Every Day Is April Fools”, inThe Root[4]:I actually guffawed when I heard that the guy from The Apprentice was running for president. I thought the 2016 election was one of the most hilarioushoodwinkeries of all time.
