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/Sounds like "mah" (as in "mark") + "droo" (as in "drew") + "GEH" (as in "get") + "teh" (as in "ten")/

Meaning

A sneaky, underhanded preemptive move that catches someone off guard before they can react. In Mexico, a madruguete is the move made at figurative dawn, when the other person never saw it coming.

Examples

They pulled a madruguete and passed the law before anyone could object.

They blindsided me with the contract, they signed with another vendor out of nowhere.

Regional synonyms

A situation, mess, complicated topic, or undefined casual relationship in Spain and several countries. A rollo can be a tangled story, a long problem to explain, or that ambiguous relationship nobody understands.