Learn English – Someone who exploits your feelings for them to take advantage of you

expressionsidiomssingle-word-requests

I need a word or idiom for someone who takes advantage of you because they know you like them. In relationships, I heard the word "user", as someone who uses their romantic partners for material gain.

More specifically, I'm thinking of someone who guesses what kind of people you like and then acts like that until you like them and start offering yourself to help with various things they need. Edit: for this one I could do with a name of a famous character from a novel.

Best Answer

I'd strongly suggest that you stick to the word ''exploiter'' but there are other terms used or accepted in several situations suggested below.

The word phony means a person who pretends to be someone else or to have feelings or abilities that he or she does not really have and it would fit your description only because nobody would go through the effort it takes to be phony without the possibility of material gains.

Another word is charlatan, which meansĀ a person who falsely pretends to know or be something in order to deceive people or simply put, a phony person. One could say '' My new friend turned out to a charlatan.''

Then there is confidence man used mostly in US which, as the name suggests, is someone who tricks you after he has gained your confidence.