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decoy

/ˈdiːkɔɪ/ verb C2
  1. To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap. (transitive) · to decoy troops into an ambush; to decoy ducks into a net
  2. To act as, or use, a decoy. (intransitive) · As they were being decoyed, the rescue team carried the hostage and quietly slipped away.

He/she/it decoys · Past decoyed · Past participle decoyed · -ing form decoying

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Verb forms

Base form
decoy
He/she/it
decoys
Past
decoyed
Past participle
decoyed
-ing form
decoying

From the library

The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy.
Three Hundred Aesop's Fables, p. 45 · B2
William was decoyed up and shot, and had they only got the whole of the note and paid a little more attention to detail in the accessories, it is very possible that suspicion might never have been aroused.”
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, p. 54 · B2
The idea of using her as a decoy was clearly already in his mind, though he may not have been certain how the details of his plot were to be arranged.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 205 · C1
The old gentleman could not be decoyed outside of his grounds at night.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 206 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.