Ploy

Definitions

1. A tactic, strategy, or scheme.
   countable, uncountable
2. Sport; frolic.
   Scotland, UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable
3. Employment.
   countable, obsolete, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have⟳ made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet⟳ ambitious growth targets. That model⟳ is still prevalent today.”

CEFR level