swindle
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
an act of swindling or a fraudulent transaction or scheme.
-
anything deceptive; a fraud.
This advertisement is a real swindle.
verb
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to cheat (someone) of money, etc; defraud
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(tr) to obtain (money, etc) by fraud
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
swindlesimple
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swindlessimple
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have swindledperfect
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has swindledperfect
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am swindlingprogressive
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are swindlingprogressive
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is swindlingprogressive
-
have been swindlingperfect progressive
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has been swindlingperfect progressive
Past
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swindledsimple
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had swindledperfect
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was swindlingprogressive
-
were swindlingprogressive
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had been swindlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of swindle
First recorded in 1775–85; back formation from swindler ( def. )
Explanation
To swindle is to cheat or steal. You can swindle money, goods, ideas, and anything else that can be stolen, but be careful, because someone can also swindle you. In the late 1700s, the verb swindle formed from swindler, which means “giddy person, cheat.” Swindle can be a noun or a verb. When you get something by less than honest means, that’s a swindle. A successful act of swindle often involves some scheme or rigging of the system. Hollywood loves a good swindle — think of all the movies that show a bank robbery or people lying about who they are. Another funny word for swindle is bamboozle.
Vocabulary lists containing swindle
Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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The Distance Between Us
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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.
See Examples For:
And while they concede that seniors may be more frequently targeted online than those younger, that, too, is based on a false assumption—that their age will make them easier to swindle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
And Uber is helping investigators to try to catch whoever was behind the attempted swindle.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said criminals will constantly change how they present scams to lure people in and swindle them.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2024
Purlie has a con artist’s cheek, but he’s trying to swindle on behalf of his community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2023
With a single glance Clara realized that Getulio Armando was going to swindle her father in the business of the Australian sheep, because she read it in the color of his aura.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
In addition, the researchers found that scammers were creating fake profiles on Facebook so they could run weight-loss-drug swindles there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2024
But all of the theft, big and small, illustrates an epidemic of scams and swindles at a time America was grappling with overrun hospitals, school closures and shuttered businesses.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
This also speaks to the hollowness that all ideological language contains, to paraphrase Orwell, in its swindles and perversions, its slovenliness and vagueness.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2023
"Inflation swindles the bond investor ... it swindles the person who keeps their cash under their mattress, it swindles almost everybody," Buffett said.
From Reuters ● Apr. 30, 2022
On the contrary, C. & H. pronounced them, on the test of a London accountant, 'mere swindles.'...
From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. I by Downey, Edmund
But voters weren’t about to get swindled again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
A Philippine congressional committee rejected impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos on Wednesday over allegations he swindled taxpayers out of billions of dollars.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
Ms Vouzelaud, 38, then tried to explain to him that he had been swindled and the couple urged him to go to the police to file a complaint.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025
Her elaborate schemes, among them posing as the heiress to an Irish fortune, swindled people out of huge sums and left Marianne Smyth with two felony convictions.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
“And I skimmed, perhaps, over the details of Lateef’s ring. But by my soul, and by your beards, I’m sorry. Let him who has not swindled a little throw the first stone.”
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Residents have been receiving troubling calls from people pretending to be their grandchildren, swindling them out of thousands of dollars.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
"These are not just gentlemen thieves, confidently swindling us of a few pennies here and there," says Craig Rice, who heads up the CDA.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
In August, a St. Louis man was convicted of swindling $200,000 from Kohl’s, according to the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Missouri.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
National Police chief Yasuhiro Tsuyuki, at a meeting Monday of top prefectural criminal investigators, said “tokuryu” have been part of surging cases of swindling via social media and have become a “serious concern.”
From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2024
The only person they could ask about the painting was Valfierno himself, the person swindling them.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
