carny

noun

1. (countable, informal)A person who works in a carnival (often one who uses exaggerated showmanship or fraud).

   “The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark.”

   “Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his inner carny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators, “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!””

2. (uncountable)The jargon used by carnival workers.
3. (countable, informal)A carnival.
4. (dialectal)Flattery.

verb

1. (dialectal)To cajole, wheedle, or coax.

   “The crossing at St. Martin’s Church was mine fust of all; and when the other lads come to it I didn’t take no heed of ’em—only for that I’d have been a bright boy by now, but they carnied me over like; for when I tried to turn ’em off they’d say, in a carnying way, ‘Oh, let us stay on,’ so I never took no heed of ’em.”