thimblerig

English
WOTD – 26 July 2016

Etymology
L’Escamoteur (The Conjurer, c. 1502, detail) by Hieronymus Bosch and/or his workshop, collection of the Musée Municipal in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, France. A man of rank is shown peering spellbound at a game of cups and balls, similar to thimblerig, operated by a conjurer. (The full painting can be viewed here.)

From thimble +‎ rig.

Pronunciation

Noun

thimblerig (countable and uncountable, plural thimblerigs)

  1. A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game.
    Synonym: shell game
  2. One operating such a game.
    Synonym: thimblerigger

Translations

Verb

thimblerig (third-person singular simple present thimblerigs, present participle thimblerigging, simple past and past participle thimblerigged)

  1. (intransitive) To cheat in the thimblerig game.
  2. (transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To cheat (someone) by trickery.

See also

Further reading
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