also 8 bambouzle. [Appears about 1700; mentioned in the Tatler, No. 230 (on ‘the continual Corruption of our English Tongue’) among other slang terms (banter, put, kidney, sham, mob, bubble, bully, etc.) recently invented or brought into vogue. Prob. therefore of cant origin; the statement that it is a Gipsy word wants proof. Cf. the similar bom-, bumbaze, in Sc. writers since c. 1725, and BAM.]
1. trans. To deceive by trickery, hoax, cozen, impose upon.
1703. Cibber, She wou’d, etc., II. i. (1736), 34. Sham Proofs, that they propos’d to bamboozle me with.
1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230, ¶ 7. Certain Words invented by some pretty Fellows, such as Banter, Bamboozle, Country Put … some of which are now struggling for the vogue.
1847. Barham, St. Cuthb., in Ingol. Leg. (1877), 217. It’s supposed by this trick he bamboozled Old Nick.
b. absol. or intr. To practise trickery.
1703. Cibber, She wou’d, etc., IV. i. The old Rogue … knows how to Bamboozle.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., ix. 143. You wouldn’t even bamboozle a little at a bazaar.
2. To mystify, perplex, confound.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 89. After Nic. had bambouzled John a while about the 18,000 and the 28,000.
1854. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., xl. He fairly bamboozles me. He is two chaps.
3. To bamboozle away: to get rid of by bamboozling. To bamboozle into: to persuade to a belief or course of action by bamboozling. To bamboozle out of: to take away (something) trickily from (a person). Cf. ARGUE v. 8, 9.
1716. Rowe, Biter, I. i. 19. You intend to bambouzle me out of a Beef Stake.
1728. Earbery, trans. Burnet’s St. Dead, I. 89. The Gnosticks bambouzled away all the Corporeal resurrection.
1878. Black, Green Past., xli. 326. Who has bamboozled himself into the erroneous belief that [etc.].
