manipulate
verb
ma·nip·u·late
mə-ˈni-pyə-ˌlāt 
manipulated; manipulating
1
: to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner
manipulate a pencil
manipulate a machine
2
3
: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose : doctor
suspected that the police reports were manipulated—
Evelyn G. Cruickshanks
Evelyn G. Cruickshanks
Examples of manipulate in a Sentence
The baby is learning to manipulate blocks.
The mechanical arms are manipulated by a computer.
The doctor manipulated my back.
The program was designed to organize and manipulate large amounts of data.
He's always been good at manipulating numbers in his head.
As part of the experiment, students manipulated light and temperature to see how it affected the plants.
She knows how to manipulate her parents to get what she wants.
He felt that he had been manipulated by the people he trusted most.
The editorial was a blatant attempt to manipulate public opinion.
He's accused of trying to manipulate the price of the stock.
Recent Examples on the Web
However, the rise of adversarial AI has heightened the risk of data poisoning, where malicious threat actors manipulate data to mislead LLMs, potentially leading to flawed business decisions.
—Shane Buckley, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
Directed by Curtis Hanson, the original watches as Peyton infiltrates the lives of the Bartel family after experiencing personal and professional ruin, slowly gaining their trust while manipulating them from within.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 18 Nov. 2024
Cleaning one efficiently might take a slender bottle-cleaning brush or, more simply, a soft sponge that’s easy to manipulate around its curves without missing any spots.
—Kayla Blanton, Outside Online, 17 Nov. 2024
This brilliant tool finds facial features like eyes and mouths and gives you the ability to manipulate them with sliders for resizing the eyes, face width, jawline, and nose.
—PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for manipulate 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Shane Buckley, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
Directed by Curtis Hanson, the original watches as Peyton infiltrates the lives of the Bartel family after experiencing personal and professional ruin, slowly gaining their trust while manipulating them from within.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 18 Nov. 2024
Cleaning one efficiently might take a slender bottle-cleaning brush or, more simply, a soft sponge that’s easy to manipulate around its curves without missing any spots.
—Kayla Blanton, Outside Online, 17 Nov. 2024
This brilliant tool finds facial features like eyes and mouths and gives you the ability to manipulate them with sliders for resizing the eyes, face width, jawline, and nose.
—PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for manipulate
Dictionary Entries Near manipulate
Cite this Entry
“Manipulate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manipulate. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
manipulate
verb
ma·nip·u·late
mə-ˈnip-yə-ˌlāt
manipulated; manipulating
1
: to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially with skill
manipulate the trackball
2
: to manage or use skillfully
manipulate masses of statistics
3
: to manage especially with intent to deceive
manipulate accounts
manipulate public opinion
Medical Definition
manipulate
transitive verb
ma·nip·u·late
mə-ˈnip-yə-ˌlāt
manipulated; manipulating
1
: to treat or operate with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner
manipulate the fragments of a broken bone into correct position
2
a
: to manage or utilize skillfully
b
: to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage
manipulativeness
noun
Legal Definition
manipulate
transitive verb
ma·nip·u·late
mə-ˈni-pyə-ˌlāt
manipulated; manipulating
: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose
specifically
: to affect (the price of securities) artificially in order to deceive or mislead investors
manipulatively
adverb
manipulativeness
noun
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share