1. A stratagem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare.
2. A disarming or seductive manner, device, or procedure: the wiles of a skilled negotiator.
3. Trickery; cunning.

1. To influence or lead by means of wiles; entice.
2. To pass (time) agreeably: wile away a Sunday afternoon.

[Middle English wil, from Old North French, from Old Norse vēl, trick, or of Low German origin.]

SYNONYMS   wile, artifice, trick, ruse, feint, stratagem, maneuver, dodge. These nouns denote means for achieving an end by indirection or deviousness. Wile suggests deceiving and entrapping a victim by playing on his or her weak points: "He did not fail to see/His uncle's cunning wiles and treachery" (William Morris). Artifice refers to something especially contrived to create a desired effect: "Should the public forgive artifices used to avoid military service?" (Godfrey Sperling). Trick implies willful deception: "The ... boys ... had all sorts of tricks to prevent us from winning" (W.H. Hudson). Ruse stresses the creation of a false impression: Your pretended deafness was a ruse to enable you to learn our plans, wasn't it? Feint denotes a deceptive act calculated to distract attention from one's real purpose: One person bumped into me as a feint while the other stole my wallet. Stratagem implies carefully planned deception used to achieve an objective: The manager used ruthless stratagems to win the promotion. Maneuver often applies to a single strategic move: "To this day they always speak of that Reform Bill as if it had been a dishonest maneuver" (The Standard). Dodge stresses shifty and ingenious deception: "'It was all false, of course?' 'All, sir,' replied Mr. Weller, ' ... artful dodge'" (Charles Dickens).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.