finagle

WOTD – 12 February 2010

English [edit]

Americanism from the 1920s, perhaps combining an alteration of fainaigue (“to renege”) with the suffix +‎ -le (“frequentive”);^[1] compare haggle.

finagle (third-person singular simple present finagles, present participle finagling, simple past and past participle finagled)

(transitive) To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect and usually deceitful methods.

...finagle a day off from work.
- 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, The Onion AV Club:
  
  Sequels to fish-out-of-water comedies make progressively less sense the longer a series continues. By the time Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles rolled around in 2001, 15 years after the first Crocodile Dundee became a surprise blockbuster, the title character had been given an awfully long time to grow acclimated to those kooky Americans. Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.
(transitive, intransitive) To cheat or swindle; to use crafty, deceitful methods. (often with "out of" preceding the object)

...shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.

(transitive) to obtain or achieve by indirect and usually deceitful methods

(ambitransitive) to cheat or swindle; to use crafty, deceitful methods (often with "out of")