deludir

A rare, literary verb meaning to delude or deceive — a close cognate of English "delude," but far less used in Spanish than its near-lookalike eludir ("to evade, avoid"). Most native speakers reach for engañar for "to deceive" and would find deludir unusual or even confuse it with eludir.

• Buscaba deludir a sus rivales con falsas promesas. — He sought to deceive his rivals with false promises.
• No te dejes deludir por las apariencias. — Don't let yourself be deceived by appearances.
• El texto pretende deludir al lector desprevenido. — The text aims to mislead the unwary reader.

Mixing up deludir (to deceive, rare) with eludir (to evade/avoid, very common) — they look alike but mean different things; when in doubt, eludir is almost certainly the word you actually want.

Often confused with eludir.