Definition of "finagle" [finagle]

• To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods: finagle a day off from work. (verb-transitive)
• To cheat; swindle: shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes. (verb-transitive)
• To use crafty, deceitful methods. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He could always finagle his way out of the tightest corners."
• "Nick Clegg and the Foreign Office, helped by sympathetic, economically liberal member states, may somehow finagle Britain back into the game."
• "Meanwhile for us tourists, our savvy Egyptian guides finagle a police escort that evening across the bridge, and we walk the rest of the way to the haven of our Western hotel."