What's the difference between credulous and hoodwink?
Credulous
Definition:
(a.) Apt to believe on slight evidence; easily imposed upon; unsuspecting.
(a.) Believed too readily.
Example Sentences:
(1) When President Obama stands up and says - as he did when he addressed the nation in February 2011 about Libya - that "the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people", it should trigger nothing but a scornful fit of laughter, not credulous support (by the way, not that anyone much cares any more, but here's what is happening after the Grand Success of the Libya Intervention: "Tribal and historical loyalties still run deep in Libya, which is struggling to maintain central government control in a country where armed militia wield real power and meaningful systems of law and justice are lacking after the crumbling of Gaddafi's eccentric personal rule").
(2) With much of the work supposed to be completed by December, it is stretching credulity to believe that much more than token consultations with patient groups can take place.
(3) This leads to the paradoxical result that some of our most famous and successful journalists are also the profession's most credulous sycophants.
(4) When 11,000 jobs and a lot of pensions are at risk over the collapse of the ailing store group from which he extracted £586 m, let’s not waste any more time on King Phil (I’ve informally stripped him of his knighthood), his hurt feelings or embarrassingly vulgar yachts, except to say that – yet again – that Tony Blair was a credulous sucker for a rich man with tax-shy habits.
(5) It doesn't exactly stretch credulity, however, to recognize that banks provide bonuses to the best producers – whether they produce derivatives, mortgages or foreclosures.
(6) Given the inertia on even the most modest legislative response to the mass murder of schoolchildren, those still credulous enough to believe that our governance is representative of popular will are either Barnum-sized suckers, or worse, tacit participants in tragedies soon to come.
(7) Credulous voters will agree and feel placated, but in actuality, such measures will make little if any difference.
(8) The Crown Prosecution Service should not be so credulous in future.” But the CPS expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the trial.
(9) I think he’s a dangerous manchild with an army of credulous misogynists at his disposal.
(10) Pretending that the government's current forecasts and plans are certain and reliable, when the ones made only three years ago turned out to be anything but, stretches credulity.
(11) What we see is not meritocracy at work at all, but a wealth grab by a nepotistic executive class that sets its own salaries, tests credulity with its ridiculous demands, and discovers that credulity is an amenable customer.
(12) The boy insists he is not among the stone-throwers, an assertion that stretches credulity.
(13) It strains credulity to accept that a secretary of state who handles all her communications on a home-brewed server never passed classified information,” Fiorina said.
(14) Hague's campaign included parading Kaminski before the Jewish Chronicle and the more credulous blogger Iain Dale at the party conference: Dale's interview is reprinted across five pages in Total Politics , of which Lord Ashcroft owns 25%.
(15) The pirate's credulity regarding the US authorities' bogus ransom negotiations may make for a happy ending, but it's also the moment when America's superpower seems almost tragically all-consuming.
(16) Kiev's police chief later claimed that he ordered the assault, but that strains credulity.
(17) That suggestion, which always appeared unsatisfactory, now stretches the bounds of credulity.
(18) Equally credulous were those who, on the Monday evening, circulated reports that rioters had broken into London Zoo – thanks largely to a single, poorly-lit picture of what appears to be a tiger on a stairwell , with the irresistible subject line: "Oh my god – reports of tigers roaming around Primrose Hill."
(19) But the manipulation does not just tell us how sly operators view the credulous masses, but how they see themselves.
(20) Ghosts are not phantoms floating on the periphery of village life, the concern only of children and the credulous.
Hoodwink
Definition:
(v. t.) To blind by covering the eyes.
(v. t.) To cover; to hide.
(v. t.) To deceive by false appearance; to impose upon.
Example Sentences:
(1) But pollsters said that even if the president's worst failing was to have been naively taken in, being hoodwinked by a tax-evader he appointed to one of the country's most important jobs would be hugely damaging for his presidential standing and authority.
(2) So are we then being hoodwinked into thinking if we take this pill, we can abdicate responsibility for all our health needs because we've taken a pill?"
(3) The taped conversation between the bankers tends to back up the view that Anglo Irish bankers knew €7bn would never be enough to save the bank but once they had hoodwinked the Dublin government into providing support the taxpayer would keep picking up the tab.
(4) JN: One of the things that worries me is that somehow we've allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked by the dominant narrative about this technology… JL: That's what I think.
(5) Perhaps there's some embarrassment that they were hoodwinked by a schoolboy – for the record, neither of the footballers shared anything too scandalous with Gardiner – but in fact many of us would have been guilty at some point of taking something we'd seen on social media at face value.
(6) The apparent hoodwinking of the conservationists seemed to be confirmed by the US diplomatic cable dated May 2009.
(7) His fellow opponent, Sir David Chipperfield, the leading modernist architect, had claimed local residents had been “hoodwinked” by the proposals because the original plan, which saw flats built on part of the site to Chipperfield’s designs, involved keeping the original house.
(8) The effect is to engender contempt for the heartless Nazi propaganda chief and sympathy for his hapless victims who were hoodwinked into giving their mandate to a gang of murderous thugs.
(9) The IFS said the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats were as one in trying to hoodwink voters.
(10) Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy Read more An anonymous publisher says: The article claims that academic publishers “hoodwink” authors, but there was surely nothing dishonest in the behaviour of the editor, who was open about anticipated sales figures and his targets.
(11) He set up an "alternative energy" subsidiary in 1995 but environmentalists repeatedly claimed Browne has been using "greenwash" to hoodwink the public: investing small sums in carbon-free wind and solar power while continuing to spend billions on finding and producing new sources of oil and gas.
(12) Often the court process is used as an additional threat by perpetrators, and abuse can continue when legal professionals are hoodwinked into becoming pawns in a game aimed at destroying our lives.
(13) "It is condescending and wrong to think they were hoodwinked."
(14) Also: stick to safe colours, don't be hoodwinked by the fit model (most websites tell you which size she's wearing anyway), and check the returns policy, which is almost always "within 30 days" provided the item is unworn – although you may have to pay P&P.
(15) She denied that the couple had deliberately set out to hoodwink the public, saying they did everything "to make it work".
(16) Here are a few great examples of previous pieces to inspire you: Female academics: don’t power dress, forget heels – and no flowing hair allowed Writing for an academic journal: 10 tips Academics: leave your ivory towers and pitch your work to the media Six myths about how universities spend their tuition fee income Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy One last thing We’d like all our contributors to sign up for membership of the Higher Education Network and get our weekly newsletter.
(17) Newcastle had gone a goal down at the conclusion of a move which began with David Silva's hoodwinking of Vurnon Anita and involved Aleksandar Kolarov dodging Yanga-Mbiwa and crossing low.
(18) The extent to which successive British governments set out to hoodwink parliament and the public over the decision to give the US a military base in Diego Garcia and force out the islanders is laid bare in files released on Wednesday.
(19) People outside education are being hoodwinked about the implications of the decision.
(20) Which means there are a few short hours left to crack the clues on the worldwide web and hoodwink your family, colleagues and followers.