Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Decoy

De·coy′ (dē·koi′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Decoyed; p. pr. & vb. n. Decoying.] [Pref. de- + coy; orig., to quiet, soothe, caress, entice. See Coy.] To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap; to insnare; to allure; to entice; as, to decoy troops into an ambush; to decoy ducks into a net.

Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy. Thomson.

E'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy. Goldsmith.

Syn. — To entice; tempt; allure; lure. See Allure.

De·coy′, n. 1. Anything intended to lead into a snare; a lure that deceives and misleads into danger, or into the power of an enemy; a bait.

2. A fowl, or the likeness of one, used by sportsmen to entice other fowl into a net or within shot.

3. A place into which wild fowl, esp. ducks, are enticed in order to take or shoot them.

4. 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.