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
-
(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
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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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:
From her minimum security lockup, she’s begun mounting her own social media blitz in an apparent attempt to win Trump’s favor and get sprung from prison and freed from accountability for her epic swindle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2025
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
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
That fuelled speculation in Zambian media that some of the suspects might have sought to swindle gold buyers in a fake bullion scam.
From Reuters ● Aug. 30, 2023
“It’s done. Buster said it out loud, and nearly every human in the system heard him say it. ‘Mercerism is a swindle.’
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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
Her self-improvement plan dated back to Ben Franklin but found its most indelible expression in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s creation of Jay Gatsby, the mysterious, alluring, handsome millionaire who also ran a few swindles.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 4, 2022
The Con In the new episode “The Heiress Con,” a woman claiming to be an Irish heiress swindles thousands of dollars from her friend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2020
If you are not robbed in England right away by such swindles, you are invited to sail for Western Australia.
From The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 2 by Furniss, Harry
But voters weren’t about to get swindled again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
“I would never use the word swindled, but the context — yes, I have said that,” Bianco said after some back-and-forth about the particulars of his criticisms.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 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
I wonder who Eb, Riley, and Bill swindled.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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
The 33-year-old fintech entrepreneur last month was sentenced to seven years in prison for swindling JPMorganChase, which purchased her student financial-aid startup in 2021 for $175 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
The following year, however, Violet and her mother were found guilty of swindling Violet’s ex-lover and their widowed neighbour.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2024
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.
