swindle

/ˈswɪndl/

/ˈswɪndəl/

Other forms: swindling; swindled; swindles

To swindle is to cheat or steal. You can swindle money, goods, ideas, and anything else that can be stolen, but be careful, because someone can also swindle you.

In the late 1700s, the verb swindle formed from swindler, which means “giddy person, cheat.” Swindle can be a noun or a verb. When you get something by less than honest means, that’s a swindle. A successful act of swindle often involves some scheme or rigging of the system. Hollywood loves a good swindle — think of all the movies that show a bank robbery or people lying about who they are. Another funny word for swindle is bamboozle.

Definitions of swindle

1. verb

   (offensive) deprive of by deceit
   “He swindled me out of my inheritance”

   synonyms: bunco, con, defraud, diddle, gip, goldbrick, hornswoggle, mulct, nobble, rook, scam, short-change, shortchange, victimize

   types:

   short, short-change, shortchange

   cheat out of by giving back less money than is due to someone who has overpaid

   type of:

   cheat, chisel, rip off

   deprive somebody of something by deceit
2. noun

   the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme
   synonyms: cheat, rig

   types:

   cozenage, scam

   a fraudulent business scheme

   bunco, bunco game, bunko, bunko game, con, con game, confidence game, confidence trick, flimflam, hustle, sting

   (offensive) a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property

   pyramiding

   a fraudulent business practice involving some form of pyramid scheme e.g., the chain of distribution is artificially expanded by an excessive number of distributors selling to other distributors at progressively higher wholesale prices until retail prices are unnecessarily inflated

   holdout

   the act of hiding playing cards in a gambling game so they are available for personal use later

   swiz

   British slang for a swindle

   shell game, thimblerig

   a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under

   sting operation

   a complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care (especially an operation implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals)

   phishing

   the practice of sending deceptive emails to trick internet users into revealing confidential or personal information

   type of:

   fraud

   intentional deception resulting in injury to another person