Idiom: "to lead someone up (or down) the garden path"

(informal) to deliberately deceive someone, to mislead someone e.g It seems as if we've been led up the garden path about the position of our hotel - it's miles from the beach! Thesaurus a numbers game, April fool, bad faith, bamboozle , bilk, blackmail ,blag ,blagger ,bluff ,casuistry , catfish, catfishing ,cheat, cheat sb out of sth ,cleaner confidence, trick, cook cook sth up ,deceive ,diddle, dirty, dirty tricks, do 1, do sb out of sth, do the dirty on sb ,double-cross , double-dealing ,dupe ,eye, fall ,fall for sth ,fall for sth hook, line, and sinker , fall into the/sb's trap, fast-talk, feint, fiddle, finesse ,fixing ,flannel, fleece, fool ,fox, funny business, gag, game-fixing ,grift, grifter ,gull ,gyp, have have an eye to/for, the main chance idiom have sb on hoax hocus-pocus honeyfuggle hoodwink hook hustle impersonate jape jiggery-pokery jockey jockey sb into sth lead 1 lead sb a (merry) dance idiom lead sb on, lead sb up the garden path, live by your wits, match-fixing, missell, monkey business, mountebank ,nick , on the take idiom, opportunism, outfox ,outsmart, outwit, overcharge,patsy, play dirty idiom ,play games idiom ,ploy, poison ,poison sb's mind idiom ,practical joke, prank, prankster, pretext ,pretextual ,pull a fast one idiom, pull the wool over sb's eyes idiom, put one over on sb idiom ,put sb on put sth across/over sb, racket ,reel sb/sth in ,ride, ringer, rip sb off, rook ,ruse , sell, sell sb a bill of goods idiom ,send/give out (all) the wrong signals idiom ,set sb up ,shake sb down, shakedown ,shenanigans ,snooker, spin ,stack the cards idiom ,string sb along , subterfuge, sucker sb into sth , swindle ,take sb for a ride idiom, take sb in, take sb to the cleaner's idiom ,the oldest trick in the book idiom, trick ,trickery, trump sth up ,trumped-up, wheel and deal ,wind up, worm yourself/your way into sth, wrong-foot Origins Origins of Lead Up The Garden Path The phrase 'to lead up the garden path' has many variations in use across the English-speaking world. You may be led down the path in Australia, up it in Europe, or lose the word path altogether in the USA. The Meaning Of course the phrase means to deceive or mislead, and is thought to originate in pre-twentieth century England, when most village homes had a garden or vegetable plot, complete with trails or pathways. Possible Origins But why do garden paths have this unfortunate association with deception? One possible origin is the old practice of villages marrying off their most unattractive women by tricking a groom into marrying a veiled bride, only seeing his new wife after the marriage has been completed. Weddings were often held in gardens, so the groom would literally be led up the garden path. Although the veil is still commonly used now all over the world, it does not always completely hide the bride's face from view. Alternative theories suggest that the phrase refers to someone being so distracted by the beauty of the garden that they may be easily fooled. The first known published occurrence of 'lead you up the garden' is in Ethel Mannin's 'Sounding Brass' (1926) where it refers to women leading men 'up the garden' for the purposes of seduction. Other Uses Psycholinguists have adopted the term 'garden path sentence' for a sentence that fools the reader by being grammatically correct whilst beginning in such a way that their most likely first interpretation of it will be wrong. For example: "He told the boy the dog bit Bob would look." The effect is to cause confusion but is mostly confined to written text, as speech patterns and the emphasis of words tend to prevent misunderstanding in verbal communication. Sources: http://northerncobblestone.blogspot.com https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/