beguiled


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be·guile

 (bĭ-gīl′)
tr.v. be·guiled, be·guil·ing, be·guiles
1. To deceive by guile or charm: beguiled unwary investors.
2. To deprive (someone) of something by guile or deceit; cheat: a disease that has beguiled me of strength.
3. To distract the attention of; divert: "to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming" (Abraham Lincoln).
4. To amuse or charm; delight or fascinate. See Synonyms at charm.
5. To pass (time) pleasantly.

[Middle English bigilen : bi-, be- + gilen, to deceive; see guile.]

be·guile′ment n.
be·guil′er n.
be·guil′ing·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.beguiled - filled with wonder and delightbeguiled - filled with wonder and delight  
enchanted - influenced as by charms or incantations
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
If you would only dismiss them from your heels, there might soon be treaties of peace and reconciliation between us." The Sheep, poor silly creatures, were easily beguiled and dismissed the Dogs, whereupon the Wolves destroyed the unguarded flock at their own pleasure.
Ogg's were not beguiled by any wide speculative conceptions; but they had their favorite abstraction, called Society, which served to make their consciences perfectly easy in doing what satisfied their own egoism,--thinking and speaking the worst of Maggie Tulliver, and turning their backs upon her.
Kenn should be beguiled into marrying that Miss Tulliver!
On re-entering the cloister, the archdeacon found at the door of his cell his brother Jehan du Moulin, who was waiting for him, and who had beguiled the tedium of waiting by drawing on the wall with a bit of charcoal, a profile of his elder brother, enriched with a monstrous nose.
We walked the golden road and carried spring time in our hearts, and we beguiled our way with laughter and jest, and the tales the Story Girl told us--myths and legends of elder time.
My perambulations had given me, meanwhile, no glimpse of him, but they had tended to make more public the change taking place in our relation as a consequence of his having at the piano, the day before, kept me, in Flora's interest, so beguiled and befooled.
And it was quite true that if Hetty had been plain, she would have looked very ugly and unamiable at that moment, and no one's moral judgment upon her would have been in the least beguiled. But really there was something quite charming in her pettishness: it looked so much more like innocent distress than ill humour; and the severe Adam felt no movement of disapprobation; he only felt a sort of amused pity, as if he had seen a kitten setting up its back, or a little bird with its feathers ruffled.
If he had heard what Emily had heard at the time of her aunt's last illness, he would have called to mind Miss Letitia's betrayal of her interest in some man unknown, whom she believed to have been beguiled by Miss Jethro--and he would have perceived that the vindictive hatred, thus produced, must have inspired the letter of denunciation which the schoolmistress had acknowledged.
The Beguiled Sky Cinema Drama, 6.20pm This compelling remake of the 1971 chiller stars Nicole Kidman (left) as a teacher whose pupils are deeply affected by a wounded American Civil War soldier.
the beguiled (15) HHH HH BASED on the novel by Thomas P Cullinan, The Beguiled is a fable of female empowerment that largely delivers on the intoxicating promise of the title.
Film enthusiasts in Manila can finally watch one of this year's most critically-acclaimed films, Sofia Coppola's atmospheric thriller, 'The Beguiled.'
I re-watched Don Siegel's 1971 version of The Beguiled , starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page, just a few days before watching this new Sofia Coppola version (with Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in the same roles), and I'm still not sure if I did the right thing.