finagle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Francisco-Juan claimed to be the 10-year-old’s father and had managed to finagle her mother into putting his name on her birth certificate, manufacturing bogus proof of the relationship.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 21, 2022
Premium cabins typically aren’t cheap if you’re paying a cash fare, but you might be able to finagle your way to an upgrade.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2022
The scientist proposes to harness the sun’s rays and the engineer wants to finagle a solution with a coconut shell.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2021
If she used some of his vast fortune to fund her music career and finagle a starring role on Broadway, so what?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2021
The conference had filled up months earlier, but Jesse managed to finagle his way in over the phone.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
“Somehow, he had finagled the thing from the military.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
He finagled it so that he ran the leg that passed right in front of his and my friend’s house on Monroe Drive.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2024
Los Angeles’ city officials and civic moguls finagled and schemed more than 110 years ago to bring its waters to Los Angeles — essentially sticking a 200-something-mile-long straw in the lake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2023
But those blowouts in San Francisco validated just how impressive it is that the Nuggets, without a true, contender-worthy second or third scoring option, finagled a 48-34 record this season using Jokic and mirrors.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2022
“Then I found out. Mother finagled the governor to appoint me to the Council of Defense. The draft board said that could be my service.”
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Hummel is one of the few who relish diagnosing their problems, taking them apart and finagling them in and out of trucks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
While the film takes a clever yet light bit of finagling to find online, it’s worth the search: “A Diva’s Christmas Carol” is a life-altering, life-affirming event movie to rival even the best Dickens alteration.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
But she has an ulterior motive in shrewdly finagling her way into a job at an esteemed Chicago law firm, which is revealed by the end of the hour and sets the season in motion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
It took some finagling to get on the lists—the spots were reserved for clients, customers, and dealers willing to fork over their contact info and sit through a sales pitch—but I had a dealer’s credential.
From Slate ● May 30, 2023
After finagling ourselves out of a visit to the principal’s office, we limped home.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
Vocabulary lists containing finagle
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