con game
6
6.6
- noun
- /kɒn ɡeɪm/
- Informal
:
estafa
- The salesman promised fantastic results, but it turned out to be just another con game.
- a big con game
- just a con game
- kind of con game
Under those conditions, all kinds of con games can be pulled off.
- Under those conditions, all kinds of con games can be pulled off.
- They end up in positions where they thrive and survive just off of their con game, their confidence.
Examples
-
You should instantly know that it's a con game.
Blog text (3) -
Under those conditions, all kinds of con games can be pulled off.
-
Government is a con game that the rich play upon the poor.
-
What kind of con game are you running?
Fiction book (1999) -
It's the oldest con game in the world.
-
His greatest discovery was that show business itself is the biggest con game of them all.
Academic text (2002) -
One of the biggest con games going on at the moment is the sustained attack on the U.S. public school system.
Blog text (23) -
What's advertising but a legalized con game?
-
Yet whenever people are asked to describe how advertising affects them, they say that they see right through it, that they are aware that it is a con game and are not fooled by it.
Academic text (1998) -
All the banks are sweating because central banking is a con game designed to make rich people richer and poor people poorer.
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
577
4.0
Deceiving someone to get money or an unfair advantage
294
3.0
A dishonest plan to get money by tricking people
107
7.2
A dishonest trick to get someone's money or things
67
6.3
A hidden trick to catch or cheat people often run by police
53
7.7
A clever trick to deceive someone
16
8.0
A dishonest plan to trick people and take their money
2
8.9
A dishonest trick that gains someone's trust to steal their money
2
9.9
A plan to cheat people and take their money
1
9.9
A trick that cheats people out of their money, often in gambling or fake investments
1
6.6
A dishonest plan to gain someone's trust and then take their money or things
A dishonest scheme that tricks people into giving money, often by selling worthless goods
A trick that cheats people out of their money, often by selling fake property
A trick that cheats people out of money by gambling or selling worthless things
Dishonest actions that try to trick people
Antonyms
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents directly signal deceit—'con' (a dishonest scheme) and 'game' (an underhanded plot)—so their combination is compositionally predictable as a scam or swindle. This straightforward, redundant pairing matches common cross-linguistic patterns for naming frauds, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Con game comes from the older phrase 'confidence trick'. con is short for confidence, because the scammer first wins someone's trust and then cheats them. That's why con game means 'a dishonest trick'.