coaxing 1 of 2

noun

as in persuading

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coaxing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of coax
as in cajoling
to get (someone) to do something by gentle urging, special attention, or flattery trying to coax their father into taking them on a ski trip, the teens mentioned what a great skier he is

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of coaxing
Noun
And honestly, this type of traveler doesn’t need the most coaxing to try out a cruise vacation. — Scott Laird, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026 No coaxing or pulling from the crate. — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 26 Feb. 2026 Hair that’s naturally less heavy can hold more shape and bounce when styling, but maintaining a full-bodied look might take some extra coaxing. — Grace McCarty, Glamour, 9 Feb. 2026 Pushing, pulling and coaxing wins out of his team amid bleak situations is what Tomlin does. — Mike Jones, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2026
Verb
Arsenal want to do that in a range of ways — in personnel, stylistic development, and by coaxing more from their current group. — Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2026 Last year, Ian Stamy took the state prize for his bumper soybean yield, coaxing an average of just over 100 bushels per acre from his operation in central Pennsylvania. — Scott Neuman, NPR, 20 Aug. 2026 Carlos Rodon executed his pitch perfectly, coaxing Christian Franklin into what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball hit straight to Chisholm at second base. — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 19 Aug. 2026 Its engineers spent close to a year coaxing usable speech from degraded audio. — Jurin Ai Contributor, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026 All that without, critics say, materially improving reporting accuracy or, critically, coaxing impactful new investment in sustainable energy. — Mike Feibus, Fortune, 14 Aug. 2026 Hagerty has leveraged his garden expertise to grow an orchard of tropical fruits, coaxing them to thrive in our Mediterranean climate. — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 12 Aug. 2026 After some coaxing from family, Ramirez realized he was perfectly equipped to create mobile kitchens from scratch. — Jacob Sisneros, Los Angeles Times, 25 July 2026 The team is working on building ribosomes from genetic instructions, a process that involves synthesizing the dozens of proteins and RNA strands involved and coaxing them to assemble in the right order. — Lori Youmshajekian, Scientific American, 14 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coaxing
  1. persuading
  2. cajoling
  3. wheedling
  4. luring
  5. entreaty
  6. wooing
  7. inducement
  8. seducing
Noun
  • In reality, Blanding says, her sister didn’t need much persuading.
    — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Goode needed no persuading about the beauty of animals like New Caledonian geckos, African bush vipers, Caribbean rock iguanas, and similar Cyclura.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of persuading
Verb
  • In the clip, Bottomley’s character can be seen cajoling Howells’ Taylor into having a drink and letting loose at a house party.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 11 Aug. 2026
  • Someone there has to be gobbier and start cajoling players into their proper positions.
    — Sarah Shephard, New York Times, 4 July 2026
Definition of cajoling
Noun
  • Checkers can see your shortcuts, your reportorial wheedling, your blind spots.
    — Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
Definition of wheedling
Verb
  • He has been charged with kidnapping, molestation, lewd and lascivious exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse.
    — Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Even as other states and foreign governments invested in their own film industries and began luring away productions from California, lawmakers in Sacramento were initially skeptical of giving tax breaks to producers.
    — Stacy Perman, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of luring
Noun
  • Alicent makes similar entreaties to Rhaenyra, offering to divide the kingdom, with Aegon in charge of the stormlands, westerlands, the Reach and rule from Oldtown, with everything to the north going to Rhaenyra.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • These are the people who will likely be most amenable to negotiations or personal entreaties.
    — Clio Chang, Curbed, 17 June 2026
Definition of entreaty
Verb
  • Tennessee has been wooing Paramount, and Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, had moved his software behemoth Oracle to Nashville two years ago.
    — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2026
  • That its partner is the US military, rather than the big tech companies its peers have been wooing, captures a shift inside the private equity firm under CEO Harvey Schwartz, who has pivoted Carlyle back to its roots in the nation’s capital.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of wooing
Noun
  • Examples of inducement include acceptance of tuition payment or the offer or acceptance of any other valuable consideration.
    — Charles Baggarly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Aug. 2026
  • The House settlement authorizes the CSC to review NIL deals for evidence of possible recruiting inducements and similar forms of compensation used to sway where athletes decide to play.
    — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 5 Aug. 2026
Definition of inducement
Verb
  • Still, with more than 40,000 industry jobs lost in the past few years, soundstages and vendor storefronts sitting empty, and lucrative overseas incentives seducing even more production away, things are bleak in town right now.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The young women acted as underground assassins, seducing Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them.
    — Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2026
Definition of seducing

Browse Nearby Words

coaxial
coaxing
coaxing (out)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Coaxing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coaxing. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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