grifter
Americannoun
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a person who operates a side show at a circus, fair, etc., especially a gambling attraction.
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a swindler, dishonest gambler, or the like.
Etymology
Origin of grifter
Explanation
A grifter is a con artist: someone who swindles people out of money through fraud. If there's one type of person you don't want to trust, it's a grifter: someone who cheats others out of money. Grifters are also known as chiselers, defrauders, gougers, scammers, swindlers, and flim-flam men. Selling a bridge and starting a Ponzi scheme are things a grifter might do. The difference between a grifter and a thief is a grifter tricks you out of money through lies, while the thief takes it by force. The end result is the same.
Vocabulary lists containing grifter
"A Novelist Who Made Crime an Art, and His Bad Guys ‘Fun’"
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The Girls I've Been
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The Wrong Way Home
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He was a grifter who spent your grandmother’s money, tried to spend your inheritance and his wife is continuing that not-so-grand tradition.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 9, 2025
He does seem to have undergone several personal changes, picking up mixed martial arts fighting, dressing like an obnoxious dudebro — complete with gold chains — and talking like a masculinity grifter.
From Salon • Jan. 17, 2025
The judge’s ruling that Smyth should be extradited could help bring about the end of a bizarre saga in which victims have painted Smyth as a master of disguise and a veteran traveling grifter.
From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024
As a new version of Tom Ripley arrives, here is a look at how this grifter has evolved over the generations.
From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2024
Low Key, who was a grifter from Minnesota, smiled his scarred smile.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
