To inveigle someone means to persuade them through clever flattery, charm, or deception. When you inveigle someone into doing something, you're not asking directly or honestly. You're using smooth talk and manipulation to get what you want.

Imagine a student who wants to skip doing the dishes. Instead of asking straightforwardly, they might inveigle their younger sibling into doing the chore by saying, “You're so much better at dishes than I am! You get them so clean and shiny. I could never do it as well as you.” That's inveigling: using sweet words to trick someone into something they might not otherwise agree to.

The word has a sneaky feeling to it. A con artist might inveigle people out of their money with false promises. A character in a novel might inveigle their way into a fancy party they weren't invited to by charming the guards at the door.

Inveigling is different from honest persuasion. When you genuinely explain why your idea for the class trip is good, that's persuasion. When you flatter and mislead someone to get your way, that's inveigling. The word suggests cleverness, but not the admirable kind.