shell game
Americannoun
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a sleight-of-hand swindling game resembling thimblerig but employing walnut shells or the like instead of thimblelike cups.
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any deceit, swindle, fraud, or the like.
noun
Etymology
Origin of shell game
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
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.
The 82-page suit on behalf of Leadenhall Capital Partners claimed that the owners were “operating a giant shell game at best, and an outright Ponzi scheme at worst.”
From Seattle Times • May 7, 2024
"Your assets can be moved around in whatever shell game Binance prefers. And in the end, whenever everything crashes you're last in line," Stark told Reuters.
From Reuters • Jun. 6, 2023
An unreliable narrator is an invitation to a shell game.
From New York Times • May 16, 2023
More than a dozen complaints specifically referred to Liberty as a "shell game" or a "fraud."
From Salon • Feb. 28, 2023
It was a shell game with no actual pea under the rapidly moving cups.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
