shell game
A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess which of three small cups a…A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess which of three small cups (or shells) a pea-sized object is concealed under, after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery.
» It's the old shell game.
Eccles17 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA game of skill which requires the bettor to guess which of three small cups (or shells) a pea-sized object is concealed under, after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery.
Hütchenspiel
напёрсткиnapjórstki
a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under
Any confidence scheme, especially one involving the rapid movement of investment funds to a location beyond recovery.
Examples
2 sentencesIt's the old shell game.
The man noticed the enthusiastic shill as he passed by on the street, and decided to avoid the predictably rigged shell game.
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Forms
plural: shell games| Singular | shell game |
|---|---|
| Plural | shell games |
regular
Synonyms
1 synonyms- a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under:thimblerig
Word family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.