Library / English Dictionary

SWINDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme

Example:

that book is a fraud

Synonyms:

cheat; rig; swindle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("swindle" is a kind of...):

fraud (intentional deception resulting in injury to another person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "swindle"):

cozenage; scam (a fraudulent business scheme)

bunco; bunco game; bunko; bunko game; con; con game; confidence game; confidence trick; flimflam; hustle; sting (a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property)

gip; gyp ((sometimes offensive) an act of swindling or cheating)

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)

Derivation:

swindle (deprive of by deceit)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deprive of by deceit

Example:

She defrauded the customers who trusted her

Synonyms:

bunco; con; defraud; diddle; goldbrick; hornswoggle; mulct; nobble; rook; scam; short-change; swindle; victimize

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "swindle" is one way to...):

cheat; chisel; rip off (deprive somebody of something by deceit)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "swindle"):

short; short-change (cheat someone by not returning him enough money)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP

Sentence example:

They swindle him of all his money

Derivation:

swindle (the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme)

swindler (a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud)

Credits