Language tip of the week: deceive

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. In this series of language tips we look at how metaphor is used to express some common concepts in English. This week’s tip looks at metaphors used to talk about deceiving people:

Deceiving someone is like sending or taking them on a journey in the wrong direction.

I’m very sorry, I never intended to mislead anyone.
He was led astray by the other boys.
I found out I’d been taken for a ride.
Ann was furious when she discovered she’d been led up/down the garden path.
Do you think he’s just leading her on?
The gang laid a false trail to throw investigators off the scent.
The ship acted as a decoy while the troops landed on another beach.
It had all been a wild-goose chase.
I think they’ve been giving us the runaround.