Link Centre Dictionary

Svengali

sven·gali

UK/svɛŋˈɡɑːli/ US/svɛnˈdʒɑːli/ rare

noun

1.

someone (usually maleficent) who tries to persuade or force another person to do his bidding

2.

the musician in a novel by George du Maurier who controls Trilby''s singing hypnotically

Origin

Named for the hypnotist character Svengali in George du Maurier's novel Trilby. More at citations.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.