three-card monte
Americannoun
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a gambling game in which the players are shown three cards and bet that they can identify one particular card of the three, as stipulated by the dealer, after the cards have been moved around face down by the dealer.
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a form of three-card stud poker.
Etymology
Origin of three-card monte
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55
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.
His three-card monte skills are storied in the neighborhood, but he’s determined to proceed down the straight and narrow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2025
Yet racing, at times, plays its fatality numbers as if it were a game of three-card monte.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2024
In the wide-open world of grifts and schemes, an overinflated basketball may not rank with identity theft, Facebook come-ons from a Nigerian prince or even a hurried game of three-card monte.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2023
A starry 20th-anniversary revival of “Topdog/Underdog,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning fable about two brothers, three-card monte and one troubling inheritance, is in previews on Broadway.
From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2022
Yakov won the first two games, but when it came time to find the Lady at three-card monte, he uncovered a worthless heart.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
