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.
Every time I needed a single ingredient, I had to shuffle through a stack of identical, unlabeled bins, opening and closing them like a particularly tedious shell game.
From Salon • Mar. 19, 2026
"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
On the way down, he was proof, to those who wanted it, that crypto businesses were not much more than a shell game.
From New York Times • Dec. 28, 2022
“That is a shell game, and the special master should not indulge it.”
From Seattle Times • Nov. 14, 2022
Each had a sea sponge underneath, like a rigged shell game.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
