shell game


noun

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

Origin of shell game

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Example sentences from the Web for shell game

  • I got the school by a sort of shell-game, which the board worked on themselves.

    The Brown Mouse |Herbert Quick
  • He had not yet learned to keep away from the shell-game wagons that followed the circus.

    O Pioneers! |Willa Cather

British Dictionary definitions for shell game

shell game

noun

the US name for thimblerig