Finagling
“Finagling” 指靠小聪明、讨价还价或略不光明正大的手段办成事,语气常带调侃或轻微批评,如 finagling a discount(砍价砍下来)、finagling their way into the event(混进活动)。
- “He kept finagling until he got a refund without a receipt.” (他一番软磨硬泡,终于在没收据的情况下拿到了退款。)
- “She finagled an extra day off by swapping shifts with a coworker.” (她和同事换班,巧妙多休了一天。)
- “Finagling the schedule took longer than doing the work itself.” (折腾日程花的时间比干活本身还长。)
“Finagle” 可能源自方言 fainaigue(欺骗),19 世纪末在美国英语中流行,强调“用手段搞定”而非正面协商。
“-le” 为口语化动词后缀;“-ing” 表示正在耍手腕或钻营的过程。无标准拉丁词根。
在美式口语与政治报道中,finagling 可中性描述“灵活变通”,也可暗指权术;与 British English 的 wangle 义近。
- 固定搭配: “finagling a deal” (促成交易), “finagling one’s way in” (混进去)
- 原形: finagle
- 近义: wangle
finagle 听起来像“费劲儿搞定”——finagling 就是正在靠小聪明或手段把事情办成。
“After finagling backstage passes, they spent the night finagling introductions instead of watching the show.” (弄到后台通行证后,他们整晚都在设法引荐认识人,演出反倒没怎么看。)