thimblerigger

• a word derived from thimblerig.
  thimblerig

  noun

  a sleight-of-hand swindling game in which the operator palms a pellet or pea while appearing to cover it with one of three thimblelike cups, and then, moving the cups about, offers to bet that no one can tell under which cup the pellet or pea lies.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

thimblerigger

The pick of Rat's litter is Corporal King, a cunning G.I. thimblerigger whose genius for survival turns Changi into a thieves' market.

From Time Magazine Archive

Others, misjudging him in two directions, have called him everything from a dictator-at-heart to an inept political thimblerigger.

From Time Magazine Archive

They bring him down to the level of a practised conjuror or a thimblerigger.

From Ireland as It Is And as It Would be Under Home Rule by Robert John Buckley

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