con artist

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a person adept at lying, cajolery, or glib self-serving talk.

2. a person adept at swindling by means of confidence games; swindler.

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Usage

What does con artist mean? A con artist is a person who cheats people out of something (usually money or other valuables) through some kind of deceitful scheme. More generally, the term is used to refer to someone who’s good at deceiving people for their own gain.In con artist, the word con is short for confidence, a reference to how they gain their victims’ trust in order to cheat them. The same term is used in con man (a male con artist). The word artist in this context simply refers to a person who is skillful (in this case, at trickery and deception).Example: I can’t believe how many people are falling for this guy’s tricks—he’s clearly a con artist who’s going to cheat and pocket all the money.

Example Sentences

Along the way, she forges an unexpected partnership with Nick, a solitary fox whose past as a con artist proves to be a valuable asset in uniform.

From Barron's

To disrupt that message, West suggests unmasking the obvious fact that the content creators themselves are con artists selling a sham product.

From Salon

The con artists would love to trick her out of the giant stone, not for selfish reasons, but to return it to The People.

From The Wall Street Journal

Cyber-scam operations have mushroomed across Southeast Asia -- often operating from unassuming office blocks or warehouses, where con artists target marks living on the other side of the world.

From Barron's

The magician Ricky Jay’s compendium of actual “unique, eccentric and amazing entertainers” offers a parade of con artists, charlatans, escapologists, daredevils, mesmerists, contortionists and sideshow acts.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• con man
• crook
• hustler
• swindler