Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A living or artificial bird or other animal used to entice game into a trap or within shooting range.
- noun An enclosed place, such as a pond, into which wildfowl are lured for capture.
- noun A means used to mislead or lead someone into danger.
- transitive verb To lure (an animal) into a trap or position to be hunted.
- transitive verb To entice or mislead by deception or into danger. synonym: lure.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A pond used to snare and entrap, and also to maintain and breed, waterfowl.
- To lure into a snare; entrap by some allurement or deception: as, to
decoy ducks within gunshot; troops may be decoyed into an ambush. - To allure, attract, or entice, without notion of entrapping.
- Synonyms Allure, Lure, Entice(see
allure ); to snare, insnare, mislead. - To be deceived by a decoy; fall into a snare.
- noun A lure employed to entice game into a snare or within the range of a weapon; specifically, an image of a bird, as a duck, or a trained living bird or animal, used to lure wild birds or animals into the power of man; hence, also, a person similarly employed with respect to other persons.
- noun Anything intended to lead into a snare; any lure or allurement that deceives and misleads into evil, danger, or the power of an enemy; a stratagem employed to mislead or lead into danger.
- noun A place, as a pond, furnished with an arrangement for luring wild fowl into it.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Anything intended to lead into a snare; a lure that deceives and misleads into danger, or into the power of an enemy; a bait.
- noun A fowl, or the likeness of one, used by sportsmen to entice other fowl into a net or within shot.
- noun A place into which wild fowl, esp. ducks, are enticed in order to take or shoot them.
- noun A person employed by officers of justice, or parties exposed to injury, to induce a suspected person to commit an offense under circumstances that will lead to his detection.
- transitive verb To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap; to insnare; to allure; to entice
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person or object meant to
lure something todanger . - noun A
real orfake animal used byhunters to luregame . - verb To act or use a decoy.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot)
- noun something used to lure fish or other animals into danger so they can be trapped or killed
- verb lure or entrap with or as if with a decoy
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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All Comments from peter wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago real lookin decoy
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Yes | No | Report from peter wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago real lookin decoy
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Sure, the birds fly all day, but getting one to decoy is close to impossible.
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A team led by the University of Cambridge bred chickens with a piece of DNA that produces what researchers dubbed a decoy molecule, which tricks and diverts an enzyme key to the flu virus' reproduction.
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Sure, the birds fly all day, but getting one to decoy is close to impossible.
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This works well with decoy shy ducks, because sometimes the best decoy is none at all.
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A team led by the University of Cambridge bred chickens with a piece of DNA that produces what researchers dubbed a decoy molecule, which tricks and diverts an enzyme key to the flu virus' reproduction.
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A team led by the University of Cambridge bred chickens with a piece of DNA that produces what researchers dubbed a decoy molecule, which tricks and diverts an enzyme key to the flu virus' reproduction.
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This works well with decoy shy ducks, because sometimes the best decoy is none at all.
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A team led by the University of Cambridge bred chickens with a piece of DNA that produces what researchers dubbed a decoy molecule, which tricks and diverts an enzyme key to the flu virus' reproduction.
reesetee commented on the word decoy
"The robber had previously put out a Craigslist ad for road maintenance workers, promising wages of $28.50 per hour. Recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America right around the time of the robbery--wearing yellow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them showed up after responding to the Craigslist ad. . . . As it turns out, they were simply placed there to confuse cops who were looking for a guy wearing a virtually identical outfit."
-- "Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops," CNET News The Social, Oct. 3, 2008
October 4, 2008
bilby commented on the word decoy
Unfortunately that's kind of cute.
October 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word decoy
I thought it was ingenious. Too bad he used his powers for evil.
Oh, and he also escaped via inner tube.
October 6, 2008
bilby commented on the word decoy
Inner tube?
October 6, 2008