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View synonyms for shell game

shell game

noun

  1. a sleight-of-hand swindling game resembling thimblerig but employing walnut shells or the like instead of thimblelike cups.
  2. any deceit, swindle, fraud, or the like.


shell game

noun

  1. the US name for thimblerig
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of shell game1

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
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Example Sentences

It’s just this shell game of information about how our system is operating.

No one has been a bigger perpetrator of this shell game lie than Emmert.

The Wall Street shell game can be viewed another way—through those literal markets that always stay ahead of the regulators.

You see,” he explained, moving to the washstand, “this shell game is easy enough when you know how.

Even in this here simple little shell game I got to have a podner.

Where would you find a man to run your shell game while you was gone?

Psionics hadn't done away with anything including the old shell game.

My impression was that if he had said "shell game" he would have more accurately stated his case.

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