skin game
Americannoun
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a dishonest or unscrupulous business operation, scheme, etc.
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any cheating or fraudulent trick.
noun
Etymology
Origin of skin game
An Americanism dating back to 1865–70
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.
I would like to take this opportunity to warn the general public against investment as in its present unperfected state it looks to me like a "skin" game.
From Time Magazine Archive
Cosmetics companies expect that this new version of the skin game could be worth $9,000,000 a year in sales.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the beginning he had higgled and haggled himself to a sad frazzle, even arguing that the skin game is an old Connecticut custom, making us worthy of our reputation as peddlers of wooden nutmegs.
From Time Magazine Archive
NTG's frightened-looking Sun Worshippers make customers the victims of a skin game.
From Time Magazine Archive
George Doble and Miller claim they're goin' to Denver to run some skin game at a street fair.
From Gunsight Pass How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West by Raine, William MacLeod
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.
