thimblerig

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game.

   “He’ll muddle away the Begum’s fortune at thimble-rig, be caught picking pockets, and finish on board the hulks.”

   “‘Great Barnums?’ says I. ‘You're a ringer for a circus thimblerig man.’”

2. (countable, uncountable)One operating such a game.

verb

1. (intransitive)To operate a thimblerig game.

   “Old Pratt is a different kind of crook—a psalm-singing, pussyfooted old buccaneer, teaching a Bible class on Sundays and thimblerigging in Wall Street on week days.”

2. (ambitransitive, figuratively)To cheat (someone) by trickery.

   “The favor is to you. I do not permit any man to thimblerig his debts to me into my debts to him.”