cajole
ca·jole [ kə-ˈjōl]
[kə-ˈjōl]
cajoled; cajoling
transitive verb
1a : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax
//had to cajole them into going b : to obtain from someone by gentle persuasion
//cajoled money from his parents
2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises
cajoled himself with thoughts of escape— Robertson Davies
Other Words from cajole
cajolement \ kə-ˈjōl-mənt \ noun
cajoler noun
cajolery \ kə-ˈjō-lə-rē \ noun
Synonyms & Antonyms for dainty
Synonyms: Synonyms
Choose the Right Synonym for dainty
cajole, coax, soft-soap, blandish, wheedle mean to influence or persuade by pleasing words or actions. cajole suggests the deliberate use of flattery to persuade in the face of reluctance or reasonable objections.
//cajoled him into cheating on the final exam coax implies gentle and persistent words or actions employed to produce a desired effect.
//coaxed the cat out of the tree soft-soap refers to using smooth and somewhat insincere talk usually for personal gain.
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politicians soft-soaping eligible voters blandish implies a more open desire to win a person over by effusive praise and affectionate actions.
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legislators blandished with promises of support wheedle suggests more strongly than cajole the use of seductive appeal or artful words in persuading.
//
hucksters wheedling her life's savings out of her
Did You Know
Cajole comes from a French verb, cajoler, which is all about cajoling, coaxing, and chattering. You might not think to associate "cajole" with "cage," but some etymologists theorize that "cajoler" is connected to not one but two words for "cage." One of them is the Anglo-French cage, from which we borrowed our own word cage. It comes from Latin cavea, meaning "cage." The other is the Anglo-French word for "birdcage," which is "gaiole." It's an ancestor of our word jail, and it derives from Late Latin caveola, which means "little cage." Anglo-French speakers had a related verb, "gaioler," which meant "to chatter like a jay in a cage." It's possible that "cajoler" is a combination of "gaioler" and "cage."
Recent Examples on the Web
//The Louvre spent a decade cajoling museums, including several in the U.S., to lend their Leonardos.
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Vivienne Walt/paris, Time, "500 Years Later, Leonardo Da Vinci Is Still a Hit—and a Headache— for the Louvre," 31 Oct. 2019
//The White House’s reconstruction of the call with Zelensky shows Trump at his backslapping, cajoling best, in full control of a conversation with a weaker ally.
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BostonGlobe.com, "Trump’s fixation on revenge for Mueller probe leads him back into impeachment zone," 29 Sep. 2019
//Then Nick Fury arrives and cajoles Peter into sacrificing the trip in order to save the world—and guilts Peter, too, with the delivery of a gift and a legacy: Tony Stark’s distinctive sunglasses, which the dying hero had expressly willed to Peter.
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Richard Brody, The New Yorker, "Review: “Spider-Man: Far from Home” Presents the Illusion of a Good Movie," 1 July 2019
//That’s the job Fortune has committed to at the Global Sustainability Forum, and that’s the process The Loop will chronicle—cajoling slackers along the way.
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Eamon Barrett, Fortune, "It’s Time for Corporate America to Rewrite Its Responsibility to Sustainability," 3 Sep. 2019
//Pushing updates to users and cajoling participants to agree on changes can disrupt a network and quickly erode confidence in a cryptocurrency, resulting in price declines.
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Matthew De Silva, Quartz, "There’s a $10,000 reward for breaking Facebook’s cryptocurrency," 27 Aug. 2019
//The workers tell jokes and cajole each other often.
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San Diego Union-Tribune, "Day in the life of a groom on the Del Mar backstretch," 24 Aug. 2019
//The United States has tried for decades to entice and cajole China to become a more open society, but the Communist Party has steadily tightened its grip over the Chinese people and the economy.
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New York Times, "A New Red Scare Is Reshaping Washington," 20 July 2019
//The Americans cajoled Bashir to allow the southerners a referendum and South Sudan became the youngest country in the world in 2011.
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Justin Lynch, The New Republic, "The West’s Complicity in Sudan’s Massacres," 18 June 2019
First Known Use of cajole
1630, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
History and Etymology for cajole
Dictionary Entries near cajole
More Synonyms and Antonyms ofcajole
to get (someone) to do something by gentle urging, special attention, or flattery
- cajoled her into doing his laundry for him
More Definitions forcajole
: to persuade someone to do something or to give you something by making promises or saying nice things
: to coax or persuade especially by flattery or false promises
//She cajoled me into accompanying her.