skin game

American  

noun

1. a dishonest or unscrupulous business operation, scheme, etc.

2. any cheating or fraudulent trick.

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skin game British  

noun

1. slang a swindling trick

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Etymology

Origin of skin game

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

In the 1971 comedy western “Skin Game,” a chest-length-beard-wearing John Brown appears so crazed that any gains to be made when he disrupts a live slave auction are undermined by the ensuing chaos that he produces in the town.

From New York Times

His criticism was collected into “Notes of a Hanging Judge,” “The All-American Skin Game” and other books.

From Seattle Times

Crouch’s criticism was collected into “Notes of a Hanging Judge,” “The All-American Skin Game” and other books.

From Seattle Times

In “Skin Game” in the main space, the maverick performance artist and erstwhile sculptor Michael Mahalchick riffs on appropriation and popular culture.

From New York Times

For cultural critic Stanley Crouch, jazz served as a metaphor for democracy, the rejection of the limits of class and caste reflected in a music “in which improvisation declares an aesthetic rejection of the preconceptions that stifle individual and collective invention,” as he wrote in his 1995 collection, “The All-American Skin Game.”

From Washington Post