thimblerig

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: thim=ble=rig

CIDE DICTIONARY

thimblerig, n. 

 A sleight-of-hand trick played with three small cups, shaped like thimbles, and a small ball or little pea.  [1913 Webster]

thimblerig, v. t. 

 To swindle by means of small cups or thimbles, and a pea or small ball placed under one of them and quickly shifted to another, the victim laying a wager that he knows under which cup it is; hence, to cheat by any trick.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

thimblerig, n. a game often involving sleight of hand, in which three inverted thimbles or cups are moved about, contestants having to spot which is the one with a pea or other object beneath.

Derivative

thimblerigger n.

Etymology

THIMBLE + RIG(2) in sense 'trick, dodge'

THESAURUS

thimblerig

beat, beguile of, bilk, boiler room, bucket shop, bunco, bunco game, burn, cheat, chisel, chouse, chouse out of, cog, cog the dice, con, con game, confidence game, cozen, crib, defraud, diddle, do in, do out of, euchre, finagle, flam, fleece, flimflam, fob, fudge, goldbrick, gouge, gull, gyp, have, hocus, hocus-pocus, mulct, pack the deal, pigeon, practice fraud upon, rook, scam, screw, sell gold bricks, shave, shell game, shortchange, skin game, stack the cards, stick, sting, swindle, take a dive, thimblerigging, throw a fight, victimize

ROGET THESAURUS

thimblerig

Deception

N deception, falseness, untruth, imposition, imposture, fraud, deceit, guile, fraudulence, fraudulency, covin, knavery, misrepresentation, bluff, straw-bail, straw bid, spoof, delusion, gullery, juggling, jugglery, slight of hand, legerdemain, prestigiation, prestidigitation, magic, conjuring, conjuration, hocus-pocus, escamoterie, jockeyship, trickery, coggery, chicanery, supercherie, cozenage, circumvention, ingannation, collusion, treachery, practical joke, trick, cheat, wile, blind, feint, plant, bubble, fetch, catch, chicane, juggle, reach, hocus, bite, card sharping, stacked deck, loaded dice, quick shuffle, double dealing, dealing seconds, dealing from the bottom of the deck, artful dodge, swindle, tricks upon travelers, stratagem, confidence trick, fake, hoax, theft, ballot-box stuffing, barney, brace game, bunko game, drop game, gum game, panel game, shell game, thimblerig, skin game, snare, trap, pitfall, decoy, gin, springe, springle, noose, hoot, bait, decoy-duck, tub to the whale, baited trap, guet-a-pens, cobweb, net, meshes, toils, mouse trap, birdlime, dionaea, Venus's flytrap, ambush, trapdoor, sliding panel, false bottom, spring-net, spring net, spring gun, mask, masked battery, mine, flytrap, green goods, panel house, Cornish hug, wolf in sheep's clothing, disguise, disguisement, false colors, masquerade, mummery, borrowed plumes, pattes de velours, mockery, copy, counterfeit, sham, make- believe, forgery, fraud, lie, a delusion a mockery and a snare, hollow mockery, whited sepulcher, painted sepulcher, tinsel, paste, junk jewelry, costume jewelry, false jewelry, synthetic jewels, scagliola, ormolu, German silver, albata, paktong, white metal, Britannia metal, paint, veneer, jerry building, man of straw, illusion, ignis fatuus, mirage, deceived, deceiving, cunning, prestigious, prestigiatory, deceptive, deceptious, deceitful, covinous, delusive, delusory, illusive, illusory, elusive, insidious, ad captandum vulgus, untrue, mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, snide, pseudo, spurious, supposititious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, scamped, fraudulent, tricky, factitious bastard, surreptitious, illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated, unsound, rotten at the core, colorable, disguised, meretricious, tinsel, pinchbeck, plated, catchpenny, Brummagem, artificial, synthetic, ersatz, simulated, under false colors, under the garb of, under cover of, over the left, keep the word of promise to the ear and break it t, fronti nulla fides, ah that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, a quicksand of deceit, decipimur specie recti, falsi crimen, fraus est celare fraudem, lupus in fabula, so smooth, he daubed his vice with show of virtue.