ploy

Definition

A tactic, strategy, or scheme.

Etymology

Possibly from a shortened form of employ or deploy. Or from earlier ploye, from Middle English, borrowed from Middle French ployer (compare modern plier), from Latin plicāre.

Example Sentences

• "Near-synonyms: ruse, stratagem"
• "The free T-shirt is really a ploy to get you inside to see their sales pitch."
• "'Bide here,' he says, 'and boil the wine till I return. This is a ploy of my own on which no man follows me.' And there was that in his face, as he spoke, which chilled the wildest, and left them well content to keep to the good claret and the saft seat, and let the daft laird go his own ways."