coax

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The Word of the Day for April 17 is:

coax   \KOAKS\   verb 
     1 : to influence or gently urge by caressing or flattering : wheedle
     2 : to draw, gain, or persuade by means of gentle urging or flattery  
    *3 : to manipulate with great perseverance and usually with considerable 
effort toward a desired state or activity

Example sentence:
     Stem cells can be cultured to divide and then coaxed to turn into many 
different cell types.

Did you know?
     In the days of yore, if you made a "cokes" of someone, you made a fool of 
them. "Cokes" -- a now-obsolete word for "fool" -- is believed to be the source 
of our verb "coax," which was first used in the 16th century (with the spelling 
"cokes") to mean "to make a fool of." Soon, the verb also took on the kinder 
meaning of "to make a pet of." As might be expected, the act of cokesing was 
sometimes done for personal gain. By the 17th century, the word was being used 
in today's senses that refer to influencing or persuading people by kind acts 
or words. By the early 19th century, the spelling "cokes" had fallen out of 
use, along with the meanings "to make a fool of" and "to make a pet of."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 






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