swindle
Americanverb (used with object)
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swindles,
present (3rd person singular)
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swindled,
past participle, past
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swindling
present participle
verb (used without object)
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swindles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
swindled,
past participle, past
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swindling
present participle
noun
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swindles
plural
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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
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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
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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
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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
In 2007, a Canadian judge ruled that Felderhof had been unaware of the swindle and found him not guilty of insider trading.
From BBC ● May 18, 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
He was filled with embarrassment: embarrassment for the human race, its preoccupation with money, its love of swindle.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Americans are awash in scams, and while some swindles originate overseas, they are increasingly coming from closer to home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Then Hek recites all the weak points in our logical firewalls that allow conspiracies and swindles to find purchase: Fake news.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2025
But all of the theft, big and small, illustrate an epidemic of scams and swindles at a time America was grappling with overrun hospitals, school closures and shuttered businesses.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2023
Draghi said it had not only spawned swindles but had also driven up costs because clients, knowing they would be reimbursed, had no need to bargain with builders over prices.
From Reuters ● Jun. 22, 2022
The farmer does not compass sublime swindles like the merchant, nor such sharp practice as the lawyer; but in small ways he is the peer of either.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 81, July, 1864 by Various
But voters weren’t about to get swindled again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
Being considered is Musk's claim that Altman - with whom he founded OpenAI - has swindled him out of millions of dollars and reneged on the ChatGPT-maker's original non-profit mission.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
The government warned about the dangers of crypto and broke up several huge scam operations, including one that allegedly swindled nearly $400 million from thousands of investors.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
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
But maybe, I thought, she won’t wind up swindled by a con man someday because of having known me.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
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
A Greek from the delta trading center of Nau- cratis, Cleomenes was an ambiguous Boss Tweed-like figure, chiefly remembered for swindling Egyptians and Greeks alike of enormous sums of money.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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.
