To deceive; to impose upon; to confound.--Todd's Johnson. To make a fool of any one; to humbug or impose upon him.--Grose, Prov. Dic.
Mr. Todd calls it a cant word from bam, a cheat. It is provincial in England, and is seldom heard here except at political meetings or in familiar conversation.
After Nick had bamboozled about the money, John called for counters.--Arbuthnot.
All the people upon earth, excepting those two or three worthy gentlemen, are imposed upon, cheated, babbled, abused, bamboozled!--Addison.
The New Yorkers have appointed Van Buren men as delegates to the Baltimore convention. If the Calhoun men can abide such dictation without a wry face, they deserve to be thus babbled and bamboozled.--Boston Atlas.
The fact is--we reiterate it with increased corroboration from [accumulating] evidences--the fact is, the South are to be bamboozled upon this subject of the tariff. Yes, sir, in the language of Col. Benton, which in the Senate, on Clay's bank bill, he proved to be legitimate English from Richardson's quarto Dictionary, "they are to be bamboozled, sir--they are to be bamboozled!"--Congressional Debates.